


Beyond the Dogfather

by Grace2013



Series: The Dogfather [5]
Category: TaleSpin (TV)
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-09-29
Updated: 2013-09-29
Packaged: 2017-12-27 22:06:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 21,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/984153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Grace2013/pseuds/Grace2013
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fifth and final entry in the Dogfather stories. WARNING: As of 9/28/13 this story is still a WIP. More chapters to come as they're completed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

June 21st, 1976

 

Sitting on the plain granite steps of the Morstoke Elementary School building, Jay Duncan was bored. An eleven-year-old German Shepherd mix; Jay was thin and of average height for his age. His fur was white, and his left eye was blue; his right one green- he also dressed somewhat unconventionally in a pale blue t-shirt, jeans, a ragged black vest with corded fringe around the bottom.  
  
Today was Jay’s last day of fifth grade; and at first he’d been glad- It was time to trade in kiddie-ish elementary school for junior high in the fall, which he anticipated greatly.

 However, all too soon the novelty began to wear off. The last bell of the year had rang, and students of various grades had all come stampeding out of the building; either in the direction of the buses, the sidewalks, or else their parents’ cars.

 Jay glanced at his watch. It was 2:33; the bell had rang thirteen minutes ago, his mother should have been there by then. And yet she wasn’t. Impatient, the young dog ran up the steps to the school’s front doors and tried them. Locked. He pounded on them for several but to no avail; and so it seemed that Jay wouldn’t even be able to call his father from the main office- assuming his father was home from work yet.

 Jay’s frustration was swiftly shattered however, when moments later; he was rewarded by the sound of an approaching car motor- and it was growing increasingly louder. Relieved, Jay hurried down the steps as the familiar sight of his mother’s 1958 Buick Super pulling up in front of the school.

 

The door was opened and Jay scrambled into the backseat. He got straight to the point and asked the first thing on his mind:

 

“Mom, what took you?? The bell rang almost fifteen minutes ago.”

 

Alice Duncan sighed raggedly as she pulled out of the school grounds.

 

“Traffic.”

 

She paused a moment and asked her son:

 

“How was your last day?”

 

Jay shrugged.

 

“It was all right.”

 

He answered honestly.

 

“You looking forward to sixth grade?”

 

Jay grinned.

 

“Definitely; it’s gonna be far out.”

 

Alice rolled her eyes. The fact that her son was so thoroughly ingrained in hippie culture amused her.

 

As the car pulled onto a quiet lane, Alice turned the car radio on. Jay grew excited as the instrumental started; as he knew it was one of his favorite songs: Love me Do, by the Caterpillars. (Although he did NOT attempt to sing along; being tone deaf)

 

_Love, love me do! You know I love you! I’ll always be true, so please love me do…. Whoa, love me do….._

 

Alice waited until the song was over before turning off the radio.

 

“Jay?”

 

She inquired, somewhat distracted due to driving; of course.

 

Jay didn’t look up.

 

“Yeah, mom?”

 

“There’s something your father and I want to talk to you about.”

 

Jay swallowed. This wasn’t going to be good.

 

“Your father and I are going to be spending the summer in Less Vegas; and that’s hardly a place for children to be. So how would you like to stay with your grandparents instead?”

 

Jay mulled this over. His parents’ relationship had been a dysfunctional one starting near the end of his second grade school year several years ago and had remained so ever since. The relationship that had been so close-knit and loving in Jay’s childhood had since began to crumble; and nowadays it seemed his parents were apt to argue and squabble over the most trivial of matters.

 That being said; Jay loved his grandparents, Felipe and Grace Karnage. He was just as close to them as he was Pearl; but then he’d rarely seen his paternal grandmother since she’d retired and moved out of state when Jay was seven. Throughout most of his early childhood, the young dog recalled fond memories of playing at his maternal grandparents’ house in the town of Southshire instead of being stuck at home under the whims of a babysitter, and he knew that spending the summer with them would not be a bad decision at all.

 

“Sure.”

 

Alice sighed in relief and a few sparse moments later pulled the Buick into the driveway.

 

“Is dad home from work?”

 

Jay asked as he got out of the car.

 

“Yeah. Maybe you should tell him about your day.”

 

Getting the feeling his mother wanted to be alone for whatever reason (and puzzled because of this), Jay ran off towards the back door of his family’s house while Alice took out a lighter and smoked away her marital problems.

 

 

Roughly the same time, in the state of Old York; to say that all was not well at the moment would be a heinous understatement. A small, seemingly-unimpressive craft had been en route to Cape Suzette, and contained schedules regarding the 1976 summer Olympics (to be held in Barlin, Freedonia) that had been kept secret for competition reasons.

 Leo Karnage had made it a priority to hijack that plane from the very beginning. The wolfdog had changed quite a lot following the 1967 murder of his aide-de-camp, Catherine Rathblair. He and his group of fifty or so like-minded companions had moved from the Cape Suzette apartment complex in which they’d been living to an abandoned, formerly-prosperous gated community just outside city limits.

 Leo loved the place the moment he’d set eyes on it and jokingly dubbed it his Kingdom. It served as a hub and base of operations for Leo and his bizarre pseudo-commune, and today, if Leo’s plan was executed as intended, he and his two partners would make it safely back.

 

“Just give us the papers; that’s all we ask. You think I’m being hard on you? Don’t make me laugh.”

 

Leo smiled callously and glanced behind him. One of the several creatures he’d recruited since Catherine’s death, Don Martino Fuentes dangled the plane’s copilot, a rather panicky female shrew, just a few inches out of the airlock doorway- if he released his paw at any given time the poor creature would plummet to her death. Indeed, Leo was quite proud of his comrade for showing such heartlessness, but such acts were not beyond Martino’s grasp.

 A mongoose dressed in a blue, paisley-patterned shirt and bland-looking white jeans, Martino had been born to an exceptionally wealthy family on the island nation of Kuba in 1941, and when the country came under Communist rule in 1958, he and his parents were quick to flee.

 Stubborn but cunning, Martino had always had a certain thirst for revenge, and Leo had specifically hand-picked the mongoose for these traits. Now, he tried to keep his voice as level and icy as Leo’s as he spoke:

 

“You heard him. You don’t give us what we came here for and she’s gonna be in pieces. It won’t be pretty.”

 

Martino made a vague splattering gesture with his free paw, and the shrew glanced pleadingly back at the pilot, a field mouse who happened to be her husband.

 

“Please, Ted,”

 

 She gasped.

 

“Just hand them over.”

 

Leo moved swiftly forward and pointed the barrel of his gun at the mouse’s head, so that the weapon brushed against his fur.

 

“Do we really have to be so difficult? Well, do we?”

 

He stared at the pilot long and hard. It was a cold, terrifying stare; completely devoid of empathy, and lacking in any emotion for that matter except for a single one: Pure, concentrated hatred. Inevitably, the rather spineless Ted buckled.

 

“I’ll get the schedule.”

 

he whispered.

 

Leo smiled briefly, but condescendingly.

 Withdrawing the gun from the rodent’s temple, Leo motioned for Martino to do the same, and he swiftly released Ted’s wife onto the safety of the floor. The wolfdog and the mongoose waited impatiently until they were presented with the scheduling information; all of it concealed within a bland manila folder.

 

“That will be all. Now…. Land us.”

 

Ted hesitated, all too briefly.

 

“I don’t want any fuss! Land. The fucking. Plane.”

 

Once again, Leo drew out the gun.

 

Ted gritted his teeth and retreated further into the plane to the controls.

 

~

Ted managed to bring the plane to an easy landing just outside of Cape Suzette; which was fine- the Kingdom WAS within walking distance from here, and best of all; it was fairly well-hidden. In the end, Ted and his equally panicky wife were each treated to five hundred dollars a piece from Martino and Leo to keep quiet about what had been stolen from them. Leo was confident they wouldn’t tell a soul- and if they did…… Well, he would have them dealt with if that ever were to happen.

 After the plane had taken off again sans its major cargo, Leo and the mongoose found themselves walking on the side of the road, alone. However, it seemed that Martino was in a mood to chat; which did not amuse Leo in the least.

 

“What was Lakshmi’s excuse this time for not helping us?”

 

The mongoose sighed, stuffing his paws in his pockets.

 Leo shook his head in disapproval. Lakshmi, a rather unattractive Nilgiri marten who was Martino’s sometimes-girlfriend, was yet another of the Kingdom’s dubious residents, who was infamous for her usage of various recreational drugs.

 

“Martino, you should damn well know that- she’s probably stoned out of her mind right now- and who even gives a shit in the end, if she doesn’t come with us on a raid? You see her every day.”

 

Martino, not caring enough to dispute this rather obvious point, went silent for the rest of the way; leaving Leo to think. To be honest, Leo was very much looking forward to the Olympics, probablymore so than a lot of his underlings. Leo’s plan, ultimately, was to assassinate the President of Freedonia.

The creature was most definitely attending the games- that much had already been leaked. Obviously, the whole event was going to be showing up on live television, and Leo relished this. His whole grandstand was ultimately going to be a show of power.

 A chance to avenge his father Luciano and the entire family by finally displaying to the world what the DiVenazettis were capable of. Do or Die indeed. Leo was determined to get the respect that he deserved; and anyone who defied him was going to pay. With blood.

 

 

Time passed, as it inevitably does and will, and afternoon slowly gave way to a quiet, humid evening. In Urbandale, at the Duncan house, dinner had been eaten fifteen minutes ago; Jamie having made the meal- he was a much better cook than Alice had ever been.

 

Speaking of, Alice was lingering in the living room (While in the kitchen, her son and husband were finishing off their desserts) when the telephone rang. Setting aside her glass of red wine, she picked it up.

 

“Hello?”

 

“Hey, Alice.”

 

Alice, to be honest, was relieved that her mother had called. Now they could finally dicuss Jay’s living arrangements that summer.

 

“Hi, mom. Any reason you’re calling?”

 

“No, I just thought I’d drop you a line and see how my little girl is doing.”

 

Alice smiled.

 

“Great to talk to you again, mom, but there’s actually something I’ve been meaning to talk to you about.”

 

“That being?”

 

“Jay….. Well, Jamie and I are trying to sort things out, so we’re going to Less Vegas this summer, just the two of us. I was wondering if you and dad would be willing to let Jay stay with you until August 25th, when we’ll be coming home.”

 

Grace, meanwhile, didn’t mind the prospect of hosting Jay at all. She had always adored her grandson, and though she was going to be a bit unaccustomed to dealing with him now that he was a preteen, the dog knew from her own experience as a mother that it wasn’t going to be anything she hadn’t handled.

 

“That sounds great, Alice. In fact, I think I’ll tell your father now. Could you drop Jay off this Saturday?”

 

“Saturday’s fine, mom. Bye.”

 

“Talk to you later.”

 

And with that, they both hung up. In Southshire, Grace reentered her living room to see Karnage lingering over a book.

 

“Felipe? Alice just called.”

 

Karnage looked up and put the book aside.

 

“How do you feel about Jay staying with us for the summer? Jamie and Alice are gonna be in Vegas till August, or so she tells me, anyway.”

 

Grace continued, sitting down next to him on the couch.

 

“I love eet, querida, and I’ll be looking forward.”

 

Karnage smiled shyly at his wife- like Grace, he also had a protective fondness for Jay.

 

“Felipe?”

 

Grace, meanwhile, paused briefly.

 

“There’s something you should know.”

 

“Si?”

 

“Jay’s a hippie.”

 

Karnage looked taken aback- To be expected; given that the last time he’d seen his grandson, Jay had been eight.

 

“Yes, the last time she called me- before today- Alice was going on and on about it like you wouldn’t believe.”

 

Karnage sighed.

 

“Hey, what’s wrong?”

 

“Deed I fail him?”

 

Grace managed to smile.

 

“No, it’s just a phase; this whole philosophy- peace, sex, free drugs- the works! Jay’s only eleven, I’m sure he’ll grow out of it.”

 

Karnage still looked concerned.

 

“I hope.”

 

Grace, however, thought he was taking the matter too seriously- every generation of youth WAS inclined to have its own subculture, after all.

 

“Felipe, Jay’s starting sixth grade in the fall; he’s probably only into this crap because of the weird music and the cool outfits.”

 

“I hope dat’s de only reason.”

 

Grace put a paw on his shoulder.

 

“He’s a good kid; it’s not like he’s sitting on the back of some graffiti’d school bus dropping acid or something like that.”

 

Slowly but surely, Karnage was beginning to look relieved and more reassured.

 

“Whew.”

 

He breathed.

 

“Don’t worry.”

 

Here Grace hugged Karnage gently.

 

“We’re gonna have a damn good summer.”

 

“Si.”

 

And it seemed, that in the turbulent wake of Jamie and Alice’s unraveling marriage, the summer was going to bring with it some much-needed tranquility.

 

 

Don Martino Fuentes lingered outside the kingdom, glancing reluctantly up at the sky. It was evening now; the sky a murky bluish-purple, haphazardly scattered with fluffy grayish clouds. Sitting on the damp early summer grass, the mongoose flinched as he briefly rose to stretch, almost tripping over yet another discarded piece of junk; a beer bottle.

 Wrinkling his nose in distaste, Martino tossed it over the fence and returned to his previous position. How long had he been sitting out here alone, while everyone else had been partying and getting stoned on the inside? No matter. He would be back in a few minutes, and would hopefully then obtain a fuller report on what he’d missed. In the meantime, Martino sat back and pondered the history of the odd, misshapen little tract of land he, Leo, and various other criminals had been calling home the past several years.

 Contradictory to its current shambling condition, the Kingdom had started out as a very small, exclusive gated community called Pemberly Hill that opened in the late 1940s; those idyllic, blissful years following the end of the second World War. Its popularity flourished until well into the mid-1950s; and up to then the town had been something of a symbol, a special place where the prospering upper classes or devoted new parents could carve a niche for themselves away from the woes and turmoil of larger society.

And until around 1953-1954; it was exactly that. But by that point in time, there was growing unrest in the supposedly idealistic community of Pemberly Hill. More and more creatures had been moving in during the past several years, and there just weren’t enough jobs and real estate on the market to accommodate them any more. The wealthiest residents quickly grew dissatisfied with this overcrowding and moved elsewhere, prompting many other residents to follow in their wake.

 By 1964, the last few, straggling households had left, and Pemberly Hill was a ghost town. A few years following the wake of Catherine Rathblair’s death, specifically 1970, Leo and his cohorts found the town and deemed it their perfect base of operations, though the land they currently occupied was only a tiny fraction of what had once been a thriving community.

With a slight sigh, Martino walked up to their buildings’ façade, and dusted weeds and assorted dead insects from a sign near the front, partially obscured by kudzu and other wild plants, but still read:

 

PEMBERLY HILL HIGH SCHOOL

 

Founded 1947

 

Martino emitted a quiet chuckle as he climbed the steps and entered. The front hall was a very bland, boxlike room with two small sets of stairs: One on the left, and one on the right; leading to the various staff/faculty rooms; the classrooms were mainly housed on the first floor alone. The paint on the walls was a drab gray, and was already beginning the slow process of cracking and peeling that would undoubtedly intensify with the decades.

 Martino climbed the right set of stairs; pacing himself as he indulged in a light jog, and flung open a door with

 

TEACHER’S LOUNGE

 

Written in black lettering across the frosted glass. This was the common meeting place and port of call for Leo’s most hardened and primary minions, and it was also where they chose to horse around when they pleased.

 Truth be told, Martino was not surprised when he saw Leo, seated at the long table of synthetic wood, having opened a torn, light blue wallet to reveal three tablets of Lysergic acid diethylamide, better known as LSD, rocket fuel or angel dust. Martino rolled his eyes. He was not an avid tripper; though the same could not be said of his companions Leo and Lakshmi.

 

“What’s with all the sugar cubes?”

 

Leo shrugged.

 

“I just figured we were all in need of a little….Celebration tonight. You gonna drop?”

 

“For the hundredth time, Leo, no.”

 

Leo flashed him a condescending little grin and was just preparing to down his pill with fruit juice when Lakshmi Varma entered the teacher’s lounge. A Nilgiri marten; Usland had been the only home she was able to remember, though her parents had immigrated from Intia. Lakshmi had always been ridiculed for her awkward, too-large hips when compared to the rest of her skeletal figure; and it was well known that she’d been anorexic for most of high school. Today, she was dressed in a turquoise-colored dress with a rather disorienting pattern of stripes, roses, and tiny flames- the marten was NOT known for her subtle wardrobe choices.

 Her fur was a dull black, except for a creamy yellow throat, and Lakshmi’s eyes were so brown, if you viewed her from a distance they seemed as black as the rest of her. That being said, it was Lakshmi’s eyes alone that were considered to be the ONLY thing about her that was remotely attractive. To Martino, however, she was angelic, and he moved briefly away from Leo’s table to kiss her briefly.

 Lakshmi seemed mostly indifferent but kissed Martino back before pulling up a chair across from Leo. They talked for a few minutes (Martino wasn’t really paying attention; given that they were talking about the LSD- which did NOT concern him!), before clinking glasses and simultaneously swallowing their respective pills.

 

Turning to face Martino, Leo gave what appeared to be a content but slightly dreamy smile. Was he actually becoming entranced already?

 

“Get your guitar.”

 

Martino sighed, fully aware that this was an order and not a question- Martino was a fairly gifted musician, and Leo would frequently demand that the mongoose play for him during his acid trips; though this was a small price to pay given that Martino had nearly as much power over the kingdom as Leo himself. And with that, the mongoose briefly left the room and returned minutes later with the guitar.

 

For the first half an hour, nothing. Leo and Lakshmi sat in silence, waiting for the pills to take effect; and take them on what they thought was a road of enlightenment. For Leo, it started off simply: His whole body gradually felt numb, as though all of his body parts had fallen asleep simultaneously; and almost imperceptibly he began to shake in his chair.

 Then, his mouth went dry, and his vision gradually began to blur and contort. Somewhere in the distance he could hear Martino starting to tune up. Good, now was about time- Leo waved a paw for Martino to start at any time he wanted, but the motion was blurred and seemingly in slow-motion. Suddenly it seemed as though his line of vision was split into tiny, square panels that grew and shrank alternately; like some twisted version of a child’s kaleidoscope.

 To Leo, the room was slowly shrouded in an orange haze, and he vaguely heard the opening notes of Martino’s song. After what seemed like an eternity, everything dissipated; the teacher’s lounge, the chairs, even Lakshmi and Martino vanished from sight.

 Leo blinked. He now saw himself on a street corner; maybe even one in Cape Suzette, but the city was…. Empty. Empty. Taxicabs and cars were frozen in traffic, the sun shone brightly for a summer afternoon, but there were no signs of life anywhere at all. Was he the last creature on earth?

 And yet…. Leo felt strangely euphoric. Thrilled, even. He was all alone, and was free to do what he wanted, at last! The wolfdog wasted no time and fled across the street, into the dampness of a movie theater. Upon sitting down in front of a projector, the film began, as though on its own accord. However, the screen shattered into what seemed like thousands of rainbow-colored glass shards that hurtled at the wolfdog from every direction, a few of them stabbing at his paws.

 Looking up, Leo saw that he was now in a blue, empty landscape with no seeming beginning or end. Peculiar. He walked off into the seemingly endless blue, and became aware of music, singing even:

 

One pill makes you larger and one pill makes you small, and the ones that mother gives you don’t do anything at all. Go ask Alice, when she’s ten feet tall. And if you go, chasing rabbits, and you know you are going to fall; tell them a hookah-smoking caterpillar has given you the call. Call Alice, when she was just small.

 When the men on the chessboards, get up and tell you where you go, and you’ve just had some kind of mushroom, and your mind is movin’ low! Go ask Alice, I think she’ll know…… When logic, and proportion have fallen sloppy dead, and the white knight is talking backwards, and the red queen’s off with her head……

 

Remember…….. What the dormouse said…… Feed your head, feed your head…….

 

 

As the song played and eventually ended, Leo continued on into the blue landscape, wondering. Who or what was Alice? Did he even care? After a moment’s thinking, the wolfdog decided, no, it was of no importance to him whatsoever. And with that, he kept on walking until his vision obscured and faded into a greenish vortex of nothing…….

 When Leo next awoke he was alone, sitting on a stone bench in what appeared to be a garden. There were no houses or plants in sight, however, only mile after mile of grass and flowers as far as the eye could see. In the distance, Leo could make out the faint silhouette of a lake; but what intrigued him the most was a shallow, open grave in front of an elaborately decorated headstone. Rising from the bench to take a closer look, Leo found the stone read:

 

Catherine Brooks Rathblair

 

1919-1967

 

Our love is forever…….

 

 

Upon further inspection, Leo noticed that dark blood was slowly but surely dripping down the front of the grave, partially masking the lettering, and upon looking down the wolfdog saw that it was adorned with a garland of decaying roses, which were now shriveling pitifully. Giving a small grunt of distaste, Leo kicked them away with a footpaw and began to retreat into the shadowed little garden, paws in pockets.

 Things seemed familiar and yet outright bizarre in this world: The sun was glimmering brightly in the sky as it always did; and yet this small, meager little patch of land seemed to be covered in a seemingly impossible amount of shadow. Just as eerie was the fact that it was so…. Hellishly, unearthly quiet. It was almost like that movie theater Leo had seen earlier, except that had been pleasant. That had been liberating. But this….. No. The wolfdog knew with a sinking feeling that this was something else entirely.

Leo’s nervous assessments proved true when, moments later, the silence was ferociously shattered by a cruel, conniving and yet somehow seductive, throaty laughter. Leo’s heart skipped a beat. Oh, he knew that laugh anywhere. It was most definitely Catherine.

 

“Catherine…..”

 

He called into the enigmatic, paradoxical gloom.

 

“You never scared me and you won’t now, slut. And besides- this is my trip; not yours!”

 

The laughter again, this time chuckling and condescending. Leo folded his arms but said nothing. Catherine had been smart, yes, but not even she could have predicted her own downfall; and yet Leo had been kind to her and allowed her to die in a more…. Humane way. So what did she want with him now? Leo was not in the mood to play her games, dead or otherwise.

 Ultimately, though, it seemed he had no choice in the matter; because moments later, a smugly-grinning Catherine materialized beside him- well, what was left of her anyway.

 She was wearing the black dress she’d loved so much, but now it had been torn into a helter-skelter of fine black fabric. The bullet Leo had shot her with was achingly obvious, and a bloody, congealing scab had hardened over the knife wound in her skull, pus dripping out of it at a barely perceptible rate.

 Catherine’s muzzle and mouth were stained with dried blood, almost like a grotesque lipstick, and her narrow arms and legs were covered in stab wounds, some of them new and bleeding, others little more than deep and unhealed gashes. Leo watched, transfixed, as Catherine paused to rake her claws (painted red, of course, or was that more blood?) into a fresh cut, digging deeply into it so hard that he winced. The wolf just smiled at him.

 

“Oh Leo…. You’ve been such a bad, bad, boy.”

 

She grinned condescendingly and placed a scabrous arm on Leo’s shoulder. The wolfdog just jerked away, glowering all the while.

 

“I just don’t fucking understand you. Catherine…. What do you want?!”

 

Catherine just shook her head, as though in surprise that Leo had so exasperatedly berated her.

 

“Oh Leo, just listen to me once. I think it’ll be worth it….. These days, you have to be careful who you can trust. Not everyone is who they seem.”

 

She giggled and retreated slightly back.

“Catherine—”

 

“Leo, what you say doesn’t matter one bit, but I have this much to tell you: Be careful out there of who you meet. Chances are they might just make you wish that you were never born……”

 

Catherine’s voice continued to echo in Leo’s ears as he fell to his knees, teeth clenched. A slightly muffled scream. Darkness.

 

 

Leo had no idea how much time had passed when he awoke, but his vision was blurred, and he had an agonizing headache. Had that been a good trip or another shitty one? Unfortunately, he was having difficulty remembering. Oh well. Perhaps that would come to him with time, ultimately, at the moment though; it wasn’t a concern.

 On the couch, Martino set his guitar aside, having played the song ‘White Rabbit’ during Leo and Lakshmi’s trip, his fingers now aching. Risking a glance back at Lakshmi; the mongoose saw that the marten was slumped over in her chair, grinning idiotically, no doubt still entranced in whatever sick fantasies she encountered on her trip.

 

“Uh, Boss? How did I do today?

 

Martino braced himself grimly, for a berating as Leo rose from his chair. Much to his surprise, the wolfdog did not reprimand him in the least.

 

“You did good…..”

 

He muttered something about having a bad trip and left into the hallway, leaving Martino and a drugged Lakshmi to themselves.

 

Just outside the teacher’s lounge, a lone female cat leaned against the wall, casually smoking a cigarette despite a lopsided, fading poster reading: INDOOR SMOKING PROHIBITED. She had been listening while Leo and Lakshmi had gotten hopelessly stoned; this was all routine for her.

 The cat, Michelle Brennan had been called Mitch since childhood. She had grown up in a poor urban neighborhood; and violence had always been just around the corner. Eventually, Mitch adapted to the bloodshed and when she got older; even learned to embrace it. On the bony side but decently muscled, Mitch’s fur was mostly a dark, steely gray; almost black, with a large area of paler silver on her upper chest.

 Her ears were tipped with black, and Mitch’s left eye was a dark green. Where her right eye should have been was covered with a cloth eye patch of a similar color, and a small pink scar ran above and below it. Mitch was dressed modestly; in a brown leather jacket, jeans, and a long-sleeved yellow blouse patterned with tiny orange flowers.

 Having been with Leo and the rest of his little family since shortly after Catherine had bitten the dust, Mitch had managed to obtain quite a bit of respect from the wolfdog, to the point where he allowed her to act as his informant, a position she cherished. Growing up in such a chaotic neighborhood had allowed Mitch to nourish her sadistic streak, and nothing amused her more than informing Leo who was a possible traitor, and then watching as they received their various gruesome punishments.

 For the past two months, Mitch had been ‘allied’ with Martino Fuentes and Lakshmi Varma under the guise of assisting them with murdering Leo and taking over the organization themselves. They met every three days in a second-floor classroom, to discuss ideas, tactics, etcetera. Mitch already knew that the murder was planned for July 2nd, and that was the day she would reveal herself as the stool pigeon she was and eagerly inform Leo of everything she’d heard and witnessed. Lakshmi and Martino would be punished appropriately (and mortally, of course) and she would be lavishly rewarded.

 The cat smiled quietly to herself as she lit a cigarette and kicked away the butt with one footpaw when she was done, and then checking her watch. 8:03. Leo had already left minutes ago; but had Lakshmi come home yet? Only one way to find out.

 Adopting a casual smile, Mitch flung the door of the teacher’s lounge none too gently against the wall and leaned in the doorway.

 

“You bitches done yet?”

 

She teased.

 

Martino, who had been absentmindedly strumming his guitar, looked up at Mitch and blinked.

 

“Mitch, you know I don’t touch the shit but just look at Laks. Does that answer your question?”

 

Mitch haphazardly glanced towards Lakshmi. The marten was slumped over in her chair, a look of vacant euphoria on her face, her dark eyes clouded slightly over. Somebody wasn’t home, that was obvious.

 

Instead of answering, Mitch just smirked, but a moment later said:

 

“Well, Marty, are we going to discuss our…. Business or not?”

 

Martino glanced from Mitch and back to Lakshmi, hesitating. Mitch caught his stare and returned it, but icier.

 

“She’ll know where we are.”

 

Martino had to admit, Mitch was right.

 

“All right, all right Mitchy. You win.”

 

Mitch scowled at the irritating nickname but waited for Martino to leave before exiting herself. As they left the teacher’s lounge and trooped up the stairs to their place of meeting, a biology classroom on the second floor, Don Martino Fuentes was completely oblivious. The wolf in sheep’s clothing was much closer than he thought.


	2. Chapter Two

Eventually, a week dragged rather sluggishly by and Saturday came. Jay was unceremoniously escorted to his grandparents’ doorstep, accompanied by his mother; and after exchanging a few brief but earnest words with her parents, Alice returned to the Buick and began pulling out of the driveway.

Jay sat on the porch steps, watching his mother as she drove off; painfully homesick already. He loved his grandparents, but he’d never been away from his own parents all that long- except for sleepaway camp the previous summer, but that had only been one week!

 However, despite the fact that he missed them; partially, Jay was happy that his parents would be in Vegas for the summer. Perhaps spending more time together as a couple WOULD help them sort their problems out. But on that note, there was another thing Jay was already beginning to long for: His best friend since first grade, Trevor Morton.

 A ginger-colored cat with pale blue eyes; Trevor had always been charismatic yet mischievous, and perhaps it was that outgoing personality that suited him as such an excellent friend for the milder and more easygoing Jay. By any means; they were practically brothers, and Jay had been jealous when his best friend told him that he and his parents would be vacationing in southwestern Usland that summer.

 Trevor’s parents would have been happy to invite the Duncans to accompany them, (Trevor and Jays’ families certainly HAD proved they could interact well in the past) but with Jay’s parents in Less Vegas this summer, vacationing with Trevor was sadly not an option.

 Jay took a deep breath and closed his eyes. From now on, starting this summer, he was going to be more positive if it killed him. Drowning in his own self-pity was going to get him nowhere; it was time to move on and look forward to the summer ahead.

 And on that note, the eleven-year-old and his mother exited the Buick, Jay dragging his dark green leather suitcase beside him as he walked.

 The two were relatively quiet as they stepped onto the porch. Alice knocked, and moments later Grace got the door, smiling affectionately as she saw Jay.

 

“Alice, hey! You have no idea how much I’ve been looking forward.”

 

Alice found herself smiling a bit.

 

“Thanks mom, it’s great to see you too.”

 

“I swear it was only yesterday you were Jay’s age…..”

 

Grace sighed fondly, clearly looking back on fond memories before turning to Jay himself.

 

“And it’s hard to believe YOU’RE eleven now, Jay. No idea where the hell all this time goes; the last time I saw you, you weren’t even nine. Come on in, it’s great to have you.”

 

“Thanks, grandma.”

 

Jay smiled shyly and disappeared into the house, taking his luggage with him. Now Grace and Alice were alone on the porch, and Grace used this time alone with her daughter to her advantage. Grace was well aware that Alice could take perfectly good care of herself; but every once in a while she DID worry about her daughter, as mothers often did. And looking at her now, Grace found it outright depressing how melancholy Alice currently seemed.

 Now that Jay was gone, her businesslike façade had dropped away to reveal a distinct bitterness. Knowing she was now entering dangerous territory, Grace tried her best to cheer her daughter up without unintentionally upsetting her further.

 

“Alice? You sure you don’t want to come in, maybe have some coffee? Your father and I wouldn’t mind---”

 

“Thanks but no thanks, mom.”

 

She glanced up briefly up at the sky before giving her mother a very brief stare.

 

“I’d better get going.”

 

Grace sighed slightly. So much for her gambit. However, she DID acknowledge the fact that going home instead of lingering was Alice’s decision; and it wasn’t as though they couldn’t call and talk later when possible. Perhaps this trip to Vegas really would be beneficial for Jamie and Alice after all.

 

“See you, then. Jay’s in good hands.”

 

“You didn’t need to tell me that.”

 

“I know…. Until next time, Princess Alice.”

 

“Mom!”

 

Alice actually laughed, and much to Grace’s delight, it was genuine. As the wolfdog got back into her Buick and pulled out of the driveway. As the car turned down the street and eventually faded out of sight, Grace lingered on the porch before eventually entering and closing the door behind her.

 Half an hour later, Jay was sitting alone in his grandparents’ living room, sprawled on the couch and licking at the dripping, liquefying remnants of a lime-flavored popsicle. He’d been reintroduced to his grandparents; and they’d asked him all the typical adult questions- How was the last day of school, were his grades good, and what was he currently up to?

 Despite that, Jay found himself quite happy to be with Grace and Karnage with them and was looking forward to spending more time with his grandmother and grandfather. But for now, he was alone with only boredom and near-silence.

 Grace had gone out for a drive, and Karnage had briefly gone to the corner store to buy the day’s newspaper as well as a few pulp, so bad-they’re-good comic books for Jay. So Jay had swiped a lime popsicle from the freezer, and had licked it idly as he watched TV, but ultimately finding nothing to watch.

 The channels seemed to be flooded with bizarre infomercials and dull news reports, and cartoons could only be entertaining for so long. And now Jay had nothing to do but sit around and think…… Or did he?

 The eleven-year-old grinned slyly to no one in particular as he briefly entered the kitchen and threw his popsicle stick into the trash. Since Karnage was going to be gone for at least several more minutes (the corner store was a bit of a walk from the house, but still within reasonable walking distance), so why not explore the house?

 However much time he had, Jay knew it was vital to exploit it to the fullest as he fled up the wooden stairs and entered onto the second floor. Admittedly, an ajar door caught his entrance instantly.

 

“Hmm. I wonder what’s in here?”

 

Jay thought aloud.

 

As he entered what seemed to be the first bedroom, however, his curiosity soon gave way into unnerved caution. There was nothing in this room but silence; silence and dust. It had to have been empty for about twenty years, and from what Jay could tell it had once been the room of a teenaged boy. Bizarre. The young dog had no uncles that he could think of other than a brother who’d been stillborn when his mother was in first grade.

 Nonetheless, Jay looked around in took in his surroundings, albeit a little tentatively. The walls were a plain, creamy cover and undecorated save for an army of scantily-dressed pinup girls whose colored posters occupied a whole bulletin board.

 Jay went to the bed and sat on it for a moment, the mattress snagging slightly as he did. Moments later, he noticed what appeared to be a corner of a small book or magazine poking just barely out from between the mattress. A little curious still, he yanked it out.

 Jay gagged briefly as a plume of dust snaked out from under the mattress, but when it was over he turned his attention to the back of the magazine. Blank. Flipping it over, Jay dropped the magazine (entitled Playguy) the second he caught sight of its rather disturbing cover image: A twentysomething-year-old female cougar, completely naked and baring her back for the photographer.

 

_What kind of grody sicko lived here?!_

 

Jay thought, suddenly nauseated. He suddenly no longer wanted to know who had inhabited this mysterious bedroom or why there was a pornographic magazine hidden in the mattress, for that matter. And on that note, he busied himself exploring the other upstairs rooms.

 

~

 

All told, Jay spent about ten minutes going through most of the second floor, and by the time he was done he knew his time was now limited. Karnage would surely be home any minute, and possibly Grace as well. There was only one room left for him to excavate and that was…. His grandparents’ bedroom.

Making a mental promise not to touch anything, especially if it were full of breakable antiques, Jay entered. It was an ordinary bedroom; if a little large. The windows on either side of the bed were modest but still let in plenty of sunlight; and the only furniture in the room besides it were two large dressers, one of which was rectangular and featured an oval-shaped mirror.

 Almost instinctively, Jay felt drawn to what appeared to be his grandfathers’ side of the room. And in going there he discovered a decades-old, black-and-white photograph with the date July, 1937 scrawled with ink on the lower right-hand corner. The only creature he recognized was a much younger version of his grandfather, but even he was almost unrecognizable to Jay. He was dressed in an outfit that resembled a naval officer’s, but with a more archaic and flamboyant style.

 Karnage wore a dark, coattailed jacket, tight-fitted breeches and glossy black boots. Flanking him were a scrawny brown wolf wearing a gray sleeveless coat and a white pilot’s helmet, a plump Great Dane with a threadbare shirt and matching shawl, and a paler cat of indeterminate breed who appeared cocky and sullen. The four creatures were posing in what appeared to be a cavern of some sort, and in the background Jay could make out four planes: Three bland, scrawny CT-37’s, and a fourth one with three wings and the number one painted on the tailfin.

 Flipping the picture over, Jay noticed more writing: _Hal, Mad Dog, Dumptruck, and of course my wonderful self on Pirate Island_.

 Jay set the picture back down, now filled with questions. Who exactly were the creatures named Hal, Mad Dog and Dumptruck? True, perhaps Karnage had had a job with some air show in the past. That would certainly explain the ridiculous outfits. And yet for some reason, Jay wasn’t quite able to convince himself of this as he left the room and departed down the stairs. Just in time to witness Karnage’s return home.

 

“Hi, granddad.”

 

Jay mumbled sheepishly, blushing as the older wolf deposited the paper and comic books on the kitchen counter.

 

“Hola, Jay.”

 

Hey, a little far-out. At least he doesn’t call me Jason. Yuck!

 

Feeling a little cheered, Jay managed to bolster his courage and ultimately ask:

 

“I found this old photo of you with some people named Mad Dog, Hal, and Dumptruck at some place called Pirate Island so I wanted to know: Did you have any jobs before you were a lawyer?”

 

Karnage closed his eyes, sighing. He swallowed hard and waited a moment before answering. When he did he responded with:

 

“I was once involved weeth all kinds of piratical proceedings. I deed eet for….. Mi madre.”

 

The wolf’s voice cracked and he bit his tongue almost the point of bleeding. Jay on the other hand, had gone silent. Jay thought of pressing the matter further, only to realize that it was a bad idea. He had better not wander too far into Karnage’s piracy days; the subject was no more his business then whoever had inhabited that lust-filled bedroom. So, (albeit awkwardly) Jay attempted to divert the subject somewhat.

 

“Uh….Is that plane in the picture yours?”

 

“Wheech one?”

 

“The one with three wings.”

 

Karnage smiled, putting the darker memories aside for the time being.

 

“Si. De Hell’s Bells, I named her.”

 

Slowly but surely, Jay was growing more interested in the current topic.

 

“Still have her?”

 

He asked with a smile.

 

“Si, I just gave her a repaint.”

 

Karnage began pacing the length of the kitchen, clearly in thought. When he turned to his young grandson he then inquired:

 

“Can I show you how she really works?”

 

Jay was beginning to get excited and for good reason- he’d never flown before in his life!

 

“Yes!”

 

And with that, the two of them left for the airfield, now in better spirits.

 

Fifteen minutes and one not-too-long walk to the local airfield later, Jay and Karnage were in the air. Sitting beside his grandfather on the plane (Karnage had added a second seat after abandoning piracy in 1946; on occasion he and Grace would fly together though she was certainly no pilot), the eleven-year-old was bursting with newfound fascination. True, they hadn’t been airborne for very long yet; but already there was something unearthly magical about this feeling of being so high above the ground, and seemingly above all one’s earthly cares.

 Indeed, Karnage couldn’t help but smile fondly at his grandson as Jay grinned shyly and leaned back in his seat, enjoying a welcome breeze.

 

“So, how old were you when you started flying?”

 

Jay asked after a few minutes, trying to break the last of the tension.

 

Karnage paused for a moment, and smiled, clearly remembering; and then said:

 

“Dieciocho- eighteen.”

 

Finding himself getting more and more curious about his grandfather’s past (well, besides the criminal parts of it), Jay then inquired:

“How’d you get your plane?”

 

Karnage smiled slyly.

 

“Forty-seven years ago I stole de Hells Bells from a coyote named Diego Montoya.”

 

He paused and spat, embittered.

 

“Hijo de puta…”

 

Jay listened, rapt with attention as Karnage narrated

 

“He was a jewel smuggler, he’d heard about mi familia. He threatened mi familia unless we left our home.”

 

“And what’d you do?”

 

“Well, well, well….”

 

Karnage laughed briefly before continuing.

 

“I had mi abuelo’s rapier on me and challeneged heem to a duel. I could have keeled heem, but I deedn’t. I was too much of a coward. I had a code of honor: Never keel another unless my own life or de lives of does I love ees threatened. By de time de duel ended, he was seriously scarred and unable to move. I took his plane, and got him to a doctor. I’d taken off his eye, his ear, ad stabbed heem three times. And I scarred hees face, Jay, for life….. And I made sure he was the last of hees line. Ever.”

 

Jay cringed. He was fairly certain he knew what his grandfather had meant by ‘last of his line’. Nonetheless, he had been enthralled by the story, and once he had a moment Jay asked:

 

“Granddad?”

 

“Si?”

 

Jay hesitated.

 

“Can I ask you something?”

 

“Of course.”

 

Jay was honest:

 

“Are you annoyed that I’m a hippie?”

 

Jay looked visibly self-conscious as he asked the question. Personally, he took pride in his involvement with the antiwar and flower child phenomena (though from a distance, his parents saw to that), though his mother preferred that Jay take up more mundane and conformist pastimes. Jay was well aware that his parents wanted him to stay out of youth movements altogether; regardless of how nonthreatening they seemed to be.

 However, it seemed that Jay had finally found an ally when Karnage replied:

 

“No! I just worry.”

 

“But that’s it?”

 

“Si, dat ees all.”

 

As the plane rumbled on, Jay folded his paws in his lap and peered curiously over the side. Sitting next to him, Karnage was content.

 

“I love mi familia.”

 

Eventually, the flight concluded and they prepared to land; grandfather and grandson now on increasingly friendlier terms.

 Meanwhile, as Jay and Karnage were preparing to return home after their flight, the afternoon found Grace on her way back as well. She’d had a pleasant, relaxing summer drive; the hood of the car (The Rolls Royce had finally been sold in 1966 after about three decades of driving- Grace had bought a red Chevy from ’62 in its place) back so she could get a breeze, driving a few blocks before eventually turning back.

 Watching the road, Grace saw there wasn’t much more traffic than usual on Southshire’s typically-placid streets, so she leaned back against the driver’s seat and turned the radio on. The song was vaguely familiar, and although Grace didn’t recognize the artist she found it was pleasant enough:

 

_You make me feel like dancin’, dancin’, dance the night away. (I’m gonna dance the night away) you make me feel like dancin’; I’m gonna dance the night away. (You make me feel like dancin’) I feel like dancin’, dancin’, dance the night away……_

 

The song eventually ended and Grace turned around another avenue. Almost home now. Grace found herself watching the traffic, however, as a sloppily-painted ’65 Dodge Dart turned down the street.

 The vehicle was being driven by a youngish male red fox, who most definitely seemed to be intoxicated and seemed to be driving straight onto Grace’s path.

 

“Shit.”

 

As Grace was attempting to turn, the Dodge was rushing towards her, and she was well aware her time was limited.

 

“Damnit, damnit…. Come on, COME ON…..”

 

Grace’s paw gripped the gear shift and closed around it. There was a grinding noise but nothing more, and she allowed herself another muttered swear. Her thoughts then turned to her family:

 

Alice, Daniel, Felipe….. Jay. Damnit, she was not going to die.

NOT going to die if she had anything to say about it. Grace knew that if she didn’t make it out of this accident alive it would tear her family apart…..

Suddenly, time seemed to flash forward. There was a crunching of glass and the scream of metal meeting metal. Grace gasped. Her vision was now blurred and distorted, and there was a severe pain in her leg.

Trembling, she ran a paw down her pant leg. It came away smeared with tiny droplets of red. Glancing ahead, she saw that smoke was drifting out of the Dodge, but to the dog it seemed like a twisting grayish smear spiraling into the air.

 

Oh, her head ached….!

Grace drew in a sharp breath, but then gasped in pain as her various wounds began to slowly sting even more. Fade to gloom.


	3. Chapter Three

Several minutes after the accident, Jay and Karnage returned home. In the kitchen, Jay helped himself to a glass of grape juice and sat down. No sooner had Karnage entered in his wake did the phone ring. The wolf answered it before his grandson could, and spoke clearly into the receiver:

“Hola, Karnage residence; and dees ees….?”

 

A pause.

 

“C-Captain?”

 

Karnage froze. It was Melina. Obviously, he’d know her voice anywhere; and even after all these years she still called him captain out of respect.

 

“Melina?!”

 

“Yes.”

 

The panther sounded breathless; and her breathing was ragged, as though she’d been crying and had only recently stopped.

“What?”

 

Melina swallowed hard.

 

“Grace….. Captain, Grace was just in a car accident.”

 

Karnage’s mouth went dry, and his whole body went numb. He was suddenly unable to think clearly. He muttered something hard to discern to Melina and then hung the phone up before starting to weep.

 

At the table, Jay’s eyes were now on his grandfather. He had stopped drinking, and his muzzle was smeared with purple.

 

“Granddad….What happened?”

 

His voice was a squeaky whisper, and the young dog instantly blushed at how embarrassing that had sounded.

 

“Your abuela….. There’s been an accident.”

 

Karnage could barely control himself as he told Jay, through tears:

 

“Wait outside, wee’ll take de bus een a minute.”

 

And with that, Jay wordlessly went out to the front steps and sat there in the dusty summer afternoon, his own head spinning. His mind, of course, was on his grandmother. How bad had the accident been? Was she all right?? What had happened to the other driver?

 

In the end, it was only inevitable before the tears began to flow for Jay himself.

 

Several minutes later, Karnage emerged from the house. The fur around his eyes was damp, and his mouth was set into a depressed frown. With few more words between them, the wolf and his grandson headed down the street to catch the next public bus.

 

The bus ride to the hospital was fairly uneventful. There was an average amount of other creatures riding, but neither Jay nor his grandfather paid them any attention. Jay sat at the back of the bus, gazing intently out the window and playing with the green-and-brown beads on the black headband encircling the top of his face.

 

Karnage, on the other hand; simply could not think. There was only one thing on his mind: The safety of his wife. Grace…. Grace…. Grace…. His wife’s name pounded through his head with every beat of his frantically racing heart. What if she was already dead, or else close to death? Melina hadn’t told him what her injuries have been, and Karnage was fairly sure he knew why. If she were dead…… If she were dead, he would have nothing left to live for. Breath coming in short, rapid gasps, Karnage forced the awful thoughts to the back of his head and waited for the bus to stop at their destination.

 

Southshire General’s emergency room was probably little different than most other ERs across the country: The area Jay and Karnage entered into was a calm, fairly sterile waiting area with pale blue walls and a linoleum flooring. Several bored-looking prospective patients were sitting around reading magazines or paperbacks as they waited in triage, and various paintings of fruits or impressionistic-style landscapes were hung arbitrarily on the walls.

 

It was such a painfully mundane, everyday room and yet Karnage barely registered this as he caught sight of the one creature who might be able to assist him: Melina.

 

The panther had been leaning against the wall only a few feet away from the reception desk, and upon seeing Karnage enter, she ran to the wolf and hugged him.

 

“Captain!”

 

“Melina?!”

 

Before the wolf and the panther could continue their conversation, however, Jay inched away, embarrassed. Unlike his own mother; he, in his eleven years, had never met his grandfather’s longtime friend and medical consultant. So, Karnage quickly did the honors and said:

 

“Melina, dees ees Jay, my plundering protégé.”

 

Despite the grimness of the situation, Jay managed a smile.

 

“And Jay….”

 

He rested a paw on Melina’s shoulder.

 

“Dees ees de best medic I’ve ever known, and one of de best friends….”

 

So, Melina was introduced and a few terse words were exchanged before the conversation returned to Grace.

 

“Captain, Jay….. I’m so sorry.”

 

Melina heaved a sigh, her gaze darting back and forth between Jay and Karnage. The two exchanged looks, preparing for the worst.

 

However, they could not have been more relieved and pleasantly surprised when Melina concluded:

 

“They only just told me: Grace is fine. She has cracked ribs, a minor concussion and a broken ankle, but that’s it.”

 

Karnage heaved a heavy sigh of relief, and Jay muttered

 

“Okay….. I can dig that.”

 

After taking a breath, suddenly looking more relaxed.

 

The moment of solemnity returned, however, when Karnage asked about what had happened to the other driver, if there had been one. Upon being told the other driver had been killed instantly, there was a small moment of silence. Karnage was of course, saddened that any creature had had to lose their life today; but at the same time he was still just as relieved: Rather some stranger that he wouldn’t have known anyway than his beloved wife of nearly forty years.

 

As they went to see Grace, however (Melina had informed Jay and Karnage that Grace was on the second floor, and decided to accompany them.) Jay was more disturbed than anything else. At eleven years old; this was his first legitimate encounter with death. Sure, his great-aunt Renee Reynolds had died when he was nine, but Renee was old and had passed away peacefully in her sleep. Apart from a few birthday cards and Christmas presents every year, Jay had barely known her. But today had been a completely different case.

 

Unlike his great-aunt, Jay’s grandmother Grace had been a major figure in his early life, and the fact that she could have very easily died today sent cold fingertips down his spine. And indeed, someone HAD lost their life today: The drunk driver who had caused the accident to begin with. The whole thing was not something that sat well with the young dog. And in the end, as the three creatures entered the second floor ward together, Jay shuddered.

 

At the nurse’s station, it was quickly determined that Jay would not be allowed to see his grandmother due to the fact that he was one year under the minimum visiting age. Disappointed and frustrated about not being able to visit Grace, Jay begrudgingly accepted his fate and sat down outside the station with a science magazine and waited as his grandfather went visiting.

 

Karnage, meanwhile; entered into a typical, sterile hospital room: Drab, bluish wallpaper with vaguely floral decals, and tiled floor. It contained a bed, a nightstand, and little else. When Karnage entered, Grace was sitting up in bed and looking perfectly healthy save for a circlet of bandages at the top of her forehead. She looked somewhat exhausted, but nonetheless the dog still wore her typical, situatation-appropriate look of droll boredom, much to her husband’s relief.

 

“Felipe!”

 

Grace burst into a grin the moment she saw Karnage in the doorway. He closed the door behind him and ran to her. They shared an embrace briefly before Grace slumped back on the bed.

 

“They said I could go home tomorrow but if I had any choice I’d damn well be back today.”

 

She rubbed at her temple, nursing a headache- a painful reminder that the pain pills she’d been given weren’t going to last forever.

 

“Same here.”

 

Karnage answered, after a time, and the two hugged again; though this time it was less rushed and far more heartfelt. When they pulled back, Grace took a moment to study her husband’s face; concerned with the fact that there was damp fur lingering around his eyes.

 

“Felipe, have you been crying?”

 

He said nothing but nodded.

 

“Querida, when dey told me….. Before Melina let me know about how you were being I couldn’t help myself…. I assumed de worst……”

 

Karnage wept openly, unable to disguise the raw agony he’d first felt upon getting the initial call.

 

Grace, (outraged about her attending physicians not releasing her condition immediately.) took her husband’s paw and gave it a hard, firm squeeze. He did the same to her, and they didn’t let go. The two kissed gently, and in the end, Karnage could not bring himself to leave Grace’s side until half an hour later; when she encouraged him that it would be best to bring Jay home. And besides, she’d be released in the morning.

 

And with that, Karnage managed to take his wife’s words to heart and departed home with Jay. Perhaps the day was not going to end on such a negative note after all.

 

Afternoon faded into early evening and then to sunset. Silence reigned over Leo’s kingdom. Not even crickets could be heard in the steamy late June dusk.

 

Most of Leo’s goons and roughnecks were, at this time, sitting around the hallways of Pemberly Hill High; gambling in the cafeteria and drinking in the gymnasium. Typical mindless fun like that. Leo, however, considered himself too noble for such brutish activities; and was already at home- a one-story brick ranch house built in around 1952.

 

As she’d already eaten dinner an hour and a half previous, Leo invited Mitch over for dessert and to discuss how her infiltration into Lakshmi and Martino’s secret ranks were going. At least, he HAD invited her. That was fifteen minutes ago at 6:45.

 

And with that, Leo resigned himself to slumping down on the nearest couch with a sigh. If Mitch wasn’t going to show, well, that was her problem. He had his own agenda to stick to; and she was merely a bonus factor. (Admittedly, a very important bonus at that.)

 

The wolfdog entertained himself by staring unblinkingly at the wall clock for a few moments, rising calmly as there was a pounding outside the front door. She’s finally found out how to use a knocker….

 

He thought with a smirk, and walked over to the door. An irritated-looking Mitch, clad in an Ungrateful Dead t-shirt and silver bellbottoms was standing on the ruined welcome mat; and she reeked of tobacco.

 

“Oh Mitch, Mitch….. Are you just going to stand out there scowling forever or are you going to damn well come in?”

 

Leo’s last words were a silky, condescending murmur; and Mitch’s scowl only broadened as the wolfdog put a paw under her chin and forced her to give him eye contact.

 

“Fuck, Leo, you don’t need to push me so hard.”

 

Mitch rasped, tossing away the smoldering remnants of her cigarette.

 

“Then don’t make it difficult for me.”

 

Mitch argued no more, and entered, crossing into the modest kitchenette where she seated herself at the table by the sink. Leo sat across from her, arms folded across his chest, saying nothing- he liked it when his minions had the first move in any bargain or conversation; it let him watch and wait for the moment they inevitably stumbled.

 

The female cat, however, was fully aware of this; and chose her words carefully:

 

“I don’t know what you expect me to say, boss, but I’ve got ‘em all right. Hook, line and sinker. Kid stuff.”

 

“So they believe you, do they?”

 

Mitch smirked.

 

“Without a doubt.”

 

“Good….”

 

Leo paused for a little too long; clearly considering his next move in this verbal chess game. Mitch was one of his best, most trusted informants; but there were times when even she got too cocky for her own good. The wolfdog didn’t have a shadow of doubt that the cat would make swift work of Fuentes and Varma; they weren’t half as smart as they liked to think they were. But that wasn’t what he was concerned about, not at all.

 

Mitch would succeed in her current task. That much was clear. But she wasn’t going to be satisfied with praise alone. Mitch wanted a reward, and she and her superior both knew what: Promotion. Currently, the only creature standing in the way of Mitch being second-in-command to Leo himself was Martino; and soon he’d find himself on a one-way trip to hell. But after Martino was gone, what would happen then? Everyone from Leo’s handful of special informants to the lowest-ranking brutes and hooligans would want to be his secondo capo. (As Luciano had so tastefully put it decades ago.)

 

But if he allowed her that much power, would Mitch stay loyal? Well. They were just going to have to wait and see about that, weren’t they? Satisfied, Leo leaned back in his kitchen chair and glanced at Mitch. For a few moments, she said nothing; but the silence was inevitably broken when she asked:

 

“So…. Some dessert, your highness?”

 

“Of course.”

 

Leo rose and went to the 1950s refrigerator at the back of the room. Opening the door, he wordlessly produced a frozen, chocolate-flavored ice cream sandwich and handed it to Mitch before asking:

 

“Anything to drink?”

 

Mitch just shrugged. She had never been especially fond of alcohol except for a few wines.

 

“Orange juice would be fine.”

 

And with that, Leo poured half a glass of white wine for himself and a glass of orange juice for Mitch. The two were silent, staring at each other wordlessly across the table for just a moment before toasting.

 

“To Freedonia.”

 

Leo grinned.

 

“To Freedonia!”

 

Mitch laughed; a cruel, rasping sound, and began slurping down her orange juice.

 

When they were both finished drinking, the cat pushed her chair in and prepared to go, passing by Leo as she made way to the door. The wolfdog took advantage of the opportunity and tried squeezing at Mitch’s hip and buttocks. Glowering, she turned on him and hissed:

 

“Try that again and you’ll kiss your manhood goodbye.”

 

Leo sat and watched her as she stalked out. Mitch was powerful and just as ambitious as he was; there was no question about that. In some ways, she brought back memories of Catherine. Leo slumped back in his chair and gave a cruel little smile, thinking. Would Mitch outfox the Dogfather in the end?

 

That was something that only time would tell.

 

The following morning, Jay and Karnage returned to the hospital in Karnage’s own car (a 1951 Chevy). They met Grace at the parking lot; and although the aforementioned dog was not too happy about being escorted out in a wheelchair, she still had enthusiastic greetings for her husband and grandson. The discharge papers were taken care of, and the three went home.

 

Shortly after lunch time, Jay was on the front porch engrossed in a book (The boy was fairly well-read for his age.), while his grandparents conversed in their bedroom upstairs.

 

Grace and Karnage were sitting on the bed together; Karnage’s head was bowed, and his face was covered with his paws. Grace wordlessly squeezed his paw. The wolf had been very quiet the entire drive back from the hospital; and only naturally Grace had began to get concerned. The German Shepherd’s worries intensified, however, when her husband didn’t so much as look up to meet her gaze.

 

“Felipe, are you okay? Come on, you know you can talk to me. If you want to.”

 

Karnage looked wistful.

 

“Someone lost a life….”

 

While the wolf and the dog were both grateful that Grace hadn’t been seriously injured; the fact that the drunk driver had been instantly killed was something that went unspoken between them. And yet, Karnage especially felt terrible about it. Yes, it was especially scary that his own wife could have died that day, and he was relieved beyond words that she was fine, but the wolf was still haunted about the simple fact that anyone had had to die that day, let alone so quickly and brutally. Here one moment and the next, gone. It was unreal, almost.

 

Sensing what was on her husband’s mind (having had many of the same thoughts herself that day.), Grace sighed and gripped his paw again.

 

“I know.”

 

Karnage burst into tears and hugged her tightly; Grace did likewise- and for a few moments it seemed as though they would never let go.

 

“Felipe…. I love you so much.”

 

“Tu es mi vida.”

 

Karnage replied, with complete sincerity. Grace smiled.

 

“And you’re mine.”

 

They held each other for a few moments more before Grace took a quick, shuddering breath and finally began:

 

“Felipe…. There’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you.”

 

Karnage nodded and waved a paw, indicating that she go on.

 

“I’ve decided. I’m not going with you and Jay to Karnageport this summer.”

 

And with those words, Grace exhaled. It was the truth. As much as she would like to tag along with her husband and grandson, this summer the dog knew it would probably be best if she stay home and focus on recovering, as nonproductive as that was. But as a compromise, she planned to contact them whenever they weren’t too busy; maybe exchange some words over the phone.

 

And on that note, Grace wincingly realized she needed to give Alice a call in Vegas to see if she was having any luck with getting back the marriage she’d used to have. As torn as Grace felt about the whole thing; she had made up her mind. This year, she had opted for a different choice.

 

“How do you feel about that? Felipe, I know you worry about me. But I’ll be fine. I’m just going to stay home, and well, try and get better. You won’t miss anything! All I want is for you to have a good time with your grandson. All right?”

 

Karnage glanced at his wife’s pleading eyes. Without a shadow of doubt, he knew that she was telling the truth, and so he analyzed this. In hindsight, it appeared to be a fine idea: He could contact Grace whenever appropriate, and also spend time attempting to better understand his grandson. All in all, a good compromise. In the end, the wolf agreed; but said nothing, simply nodding.

 

“Look, can we *both* try to stay positive for Jay’s sake? At least try?”

 

Karnage hugged his wife one more time and gently kissed her forehead.

 

“Si. Ti amo siempre.”

 

And despite the odds, in the end; staying positive was something they both could do.

 

Jamie and Alice, meanwhile, were (against all odds) thoroughly enjoying their vacation in Less Vegas. Thus far, anyway. They had taken the cheapest six-hour flight out of Urbandale to Navoda on Saturday, the twenty-sixth, and had gotten there by eight in the evening.

 

The two had booked a single bedroom at the Gilded Weasel; ostensibly the most affordable hotel they could find on the Strip, if only because it was closer to the mainstream attractions and tourist sites. Even though it was only eight thirty-three in the morning, Alice was already awake and sitting at the small black table by the window, drinking coffee and in the process of devouring a hotel-provided bagel.

 

The wolfdog found herself smiling, however, as her husband moaned blearily and yawned, sitting up.

 

“Alice, I just don’t get you. We’re here in Vegas and we can sleep in until eleven and here you are, up at eight-thirty.”

 

Alice smirked.

 

“What’s so extraordinary about that?”

 

She teased, having always been an early riser.

 

“Well, some things never change; now that you mention that.”

 

Finishing the last of her breakfast, Alice found herself asking:

 

“Do you want me to get you something in the lobby?”

 

Jamie shrugged, indifferent.

 

“Nah, I’ll go myself. Thanks.”

 

When Jamie had finished eating his own meal, the couple ultimately began discussing their plans for the day. Eventually, it was decided that the gambling could wait, and the two put on their bathing suits and went to the hotel pool. All in all, they entered the sliding glass doors into a typical scene: A large, beige concrete plaza with a fairly long swimming pool located towards the back. The poolside was bustling with activity; small children were playing and splashing in shallower parts of the water while the adults gossiped and read tabloid columns or magazines, protected from the sun by large umbrellas. And eerily; two beige-clad representatives from hotel security who muttered secretive, hard-to-discern words to each other as they walked.

 

Eventually, Jamie and Alice were able to navigate the various crowds and entered the pool. Jamie sat on one of the stone steps leading into the water while Alice was more daring; attempting to float on her back and stay that way.

 

“Alice?”

 

“Hmm?”

 

Alice stopped floating and waded over to her husband.

 

“There’s something I want to talk about.”

 

Alice sighed a bit. If Jamie was going to bring up their marriage now; she hoped he’d be careful. They didn’t come on this vacation to fight even more.

Slowly, though, she managed to take a breath and reply, with a forced smile:

 

“Shoot.”

 

“Alice…. Does it bother you, about how I’ve treated Jay?”

 

Alice looked slightly away from her husband. She had to think about this and consider this. Yes, her husband always HAD been the more open-minded parent; and had encouraged their son to pursue his interests (in this case, various antiwar groups for youths) just so long as they weren’t dangerous to himself or others.

 

Alice, on the other hand, had always been concerned about how Jay was perceived in public or else by his fellow classmates at school. She didn’t want her son riding around in rainbow-colored school buses and getting high on LSD. Truth be told, she just wanted her son to be…. Normal. But Jamie it seemed, always had other ideas. But that wasn’t what they had began arguing about.

 

“I really don’t have an opinion, Jamie; you know that….. But what I’d like to know is: Why are you bringing this up? What do you REALLY want to tell me, if anything?”

 

Jamie threw up his paws in exasperation. Try as he might, there were some things he’d never be able to hide from Alice for long.

 

Her expression softening, Alice continued:

 

“If you want to talk about this later or even not at all…..”

 

“No, Alice…. We’ve gotta: It’s about us.”

 

“Jamie….”

 

Alice turned and made as though to wade farther back into the pool. Jamie went to her (Alice had gone slightly farther into the pool; where the water was waist-high) and led her back to the steps.

 

“Jamie, the past three years it’s like I’ve barely known you. Why keep pretending?”

 

Once again, Jamie begrudgingly knew that Alice was correct. The past three years; starting around when Jay had turned eight, they’d become increasingly distant. Jamie had, admittedly, been going to bars in the evening and striking up friendships with other women --regardless of whether or not they were single-- and Alice had gotten more and more absorbed into the world of her writing, it was killing her emotionally that she’d only ever had two of her gargantuan manuscripts shipped off and published.

 

And neither of them had made any effort to make amends.

 

“Alice,”

 

Jamie choked.

 

“The past three years I’ve done some really stupid shit. I’ve been going out late and talking with girls half my age… And all this time it’s like I’ve damn well forgotten I have a wife and our amazing son.”

 

“Jamie…. Oh damn, oh damn…..”

 

Alice looked up a bit, facing her husband and eyeing him directly. He wasn’t the only guilty party and she wanted to make that clear.

 

“The past three, four years, I’ve gotten so preoccupied with my writing. It’s just been one rejection after another and agent shopping like you wouldn’t believe. But I’m going to take a break; and I’m going to start now. That’s what we’re here for.”

 

“Right.”

 

Jamie was smiling shyly as he gave his wife eye contact, and Alice found herself smiling back. Oh, did she ever recognize that smile. When Jamie gave her that look his wife could practically re-experience their happy days together as college students. But the fact that she was finally seeing that smile after goodness knows how long was a positive sign.

 

Maybe now that they were here together; and distanced from all their usual emotion woes, things would start looking up for the couple. And on that note…. Perhaps things might not be so bad for Alice and Jamie after all.

 

Meanwhile, as morning concluded in Navoda; in Urbandale it was already well into afternoon. Outside the entrance of what was once Pemberly Hill High, Mitch and Leo had just completed a lively game of chess.

 

“Checkmate, Michelle.”

 

Leo smirked as he made his final move. Mitch leaned across the table, hissing as she did. When she spoke her voice was a throaty rasp:

 

“Leo, how many times must I tell you not to call me that?”

 

“It’s better than the alternative.”

 

“Hey, don’t rub that in.”

 

Leo grinned, knowing that he’d won- The only thing the female cat disliked about her nickname was the fact that she was practically setting herself for being called a bitch. Though common knowledge dictated that a smart creature wouldn’t say that to her face anyway; Leo had special leeway given that he was, of course, her superior. And however begrudgingly, Mitch acknowledged that.

 

Looking away from Leo for a moment, Mitch lit a cigar, laughing as she blew a smoke ring, and then another. Moments later, however, the two were startled by a faint but increasingly-loud sound of engines revving. There was a squeal of tires, and both dark heads turned to see who was so intent on visiting them.

 

“Don’t you worry your precious little head, Landino.” Mitch muttered as she pushed in her chair; putting special emphasis on Leo’s alias. The wolfdog frowned but nonetheless allowed her to step away and greet their new ‘guest’.

 

A dog who appeared to be thirty at the youngest (making her five years younger than Mitch if that guess was correct.) dismounted the motorcycle and leaned against a nearby tree, smirking as she did. The stranger appeared to be a Saluki and an Irish Setter mix: her fur was a wavy dark brown; nearly black, with a cream-colored muzzle, forepaws; and part of her tail. Her eyes were a striking blue, and a similarly-colored satin ribbon was threaded through her hair.

 

The mixed breed was also dressed mundanely enough- in a simple peasant skirt and a dark red leather motorcycle jacket that had been zippered open to reveal an orange blouse decorated with a pattern of sunflowers. All in all, she seemed harmless enough if mildly suspicious. But still, Mitch felt a need to interrogate her anyway.

 

“What in the hell are you doing here, Miss Hitchhiker? Are you by any chance, aware that the upstanding family community of Pemberly Hill is a GHOST TOWN?”

 

Mitch pressed closer to the dog as she spoke. There was a certain condescending venom to her voice; especially her last two words, but the stranger seemed totally unfazed. On that note, Mitch took a moment to calm down; clenching her fists beside her and breathing rapidly in and out. Her little show of temper had been used exclusively to frighten the newcomer into submission. Now that she knew that wasn’t going to work, the cat needed a moment to take a breather and consider her next option.

 

“The name, kitty-cat; is Bridget Kahal. And I’m here to speak with a Mr. Landino diVenazetti….. Now, I’m sure this place can’t be all that much of a ghost town if he’s here, correct?”

 

Subtly, Mitch bristled. She loathed being talked down to.

 

“Yes….. Bridget, as a matter of fact he is.”

 

Mitch’s eyes fell on the dog’s skirt. There was a peculiar, greasy stain across her lap…..

 

“Is that lighter fluid…..?”

 

Bridget gave a smooth, musical laugh.

 

“Yes it is. I spilled some of the shit all over myself….”

 

As she spoke, the orange and yellow glow of flames leaped high in the distance.

 

“Did you ever hear of a Jake O'Bradaigh?”

 

Mitch did not. The name was not familiar to her.

 

“Let us just say that you won’t be hearing of the no good son of a bitch now….” The dog's voice held venom and victory.

Bridget laughed again, and Mitch found herself growing increasingly uncomfortable. How sane was this female? Certainly Leo himself, her own superior was most definitely not sane; but you only saw….. That side of him if you were courageous (or else outright stupid enough) to provoke him in some way or another.

 

Mitch considered her options. She could leave this Bridget Kahal outside the school, lock the gate, and call it a day. But then, she would undoubtedly be on the receiving end of Leo’s wrath. And if she wanted to be his second-fiddle Mitch knew that she had to stay in his good graces. Always. So, she swallowed hard; put on a grim but neutral face and said to the saluki-mix:

 

“You want Mr. DiVenazetti? I’ll take you to him, city girl….. Where the hell are you from, anyway?”

 

Bridget smirked.

 

“Old York City; I only moved out here recently.”

 

“Bullshit. Everyone’s from Old York.”

 

“Everyone you know?”

 

“Well….”

 

As they reached the flagstone path leading up to the school building, Mitch stepped aside and allowed Bridget to reach Leo alone; calling over her shoulder:

 

“You have a visitor, your royal majesty!”

 

Slumping back against the nearest tree, Mitch began to wonder: Bridget was intent on joining their little hierarchy. That much was already clear. But where would she fall into place in the current struggle for dominance (if indeed, she played a role in that at all)? Well, she would simply have to observe and wait.

But being the sadistic, predatory figure that she was; Mitch had no issue with that. No; absolutely no problem at all……

Bridget turned back to face her. "In case you're wondering, there's a reason I did it." The saluki mix's voice was suddenly harsh with rage. "The bastard put me through hell, so I sent him there!"

Bridget's voice rose to a scream of rage, a psychotic light came into her eyes as she punctuated her next words by yanking her gun from the holster and stabbing it into the air over her head. "I have my eye on you! Double-cross me and you'll find out why they call me the Black Eagle!"

Sudden fear washed over Mitch and froze her throat as she looked at the dog The dog's eyes were ice-cold, completely devoid of any emotion other than hate. Her voice was so cold Mitch could swear the temperature plummeted eighty degrees.

Because Bridget Kahal seemed to be the only one who could make Mitch Brennan truly afraid.


	4. Chapter Four

It was several minutes past six on Monday, June 28th, when Grace awoke to find her husband out of bed and packing.

“Querida,” He sighed.

 

“Do you know what I’m de most grateful for?”

 

“Wassat?”

 

Grace mumbled, still groggy.

 

“When I turned over a new bush.”

 

The wolf crept over to the bed. Then, he leaned over and kissed Grace gently, passionately.

 

“La otra mitad de mi corazon,” he whispered. “Siempre.”

 

Grace blinked, her eyes clearer, and grinned; kissing him back in the same manner.

 

“Mi angelo.”

 

They hugged, before Karnage took a few steps back and began to pace. He was smiling as he asked his wife:

 

“Deed you remember de rapier dat got stolen?”

 

Grace did. It was among the items that had been stolen from their home during the break-in thirty-one years ago.

 

Karnage hauled over a maroon steamer trunk and pulled out a sword wrapped in greasy leather rags. Carefully, gently, he removed the cloths to reveal the initials D.K. written on the hilt. Grace’s eyes widened. Where had he been able to find that?

 

“Felipe…..”

 

She breathed.

 

“How in the hell did you get that back? That sword was stolen over thirty years ago!”

 

“A friend saw eet for sale een a shop, she said. She recognized de eengraving.”

 

“Melina?”

 

Grace guessed.

 

Karnage smiled.

 

“Si.”

 

Grace rose from the bed (a bit slowly, what with her still-healing injuries) and both her paws on her husband’s shoulders and looked him in the eye, saying:

 

“I’m gonna miss you. Hell, you know I will but…. We can still call, right?”

 

Karnage understood how much his wife would miss him. They hadn’t been apart for this long in what seemed to be an eternity; and somehow it seemed that phone calls would not quite make up for it.

 

“Si.”

 

“And because I worry…. You’ll take care of Jay, for the both of us?”

 

“Si, querida.”

 

Grace found herself smiling as well, suddenly feeling more optimistic.

 

“Ti amo.”

 

She murmured, giving Karnage a brief kiss. He returned it.

 

“Siempre y siempre. Take care of yourself, querida.”

 

Grace smirked.

 

“Hey, you know me. You know I will.”

 

And with that, Grace turned and helped the wolf finish up his packing.

 

Later that morning, after a peaceful (if uneventful) breakfast; Jay and Karnage said their bittersweet goodbyes to Grace, got in the back of the car; and left Southshire. They only had so much time before the traffic started getting hectic, but Jay still begrudgingly wished he could have had time to sleep in a little more.

 

As they entered the main highway, Karnage instantly noticed the massive amount of congested traffic on the road and sighed. This was probably going to be a lot longer than he’d anticipated.

 

~

 

Half an hour later, Jay and Karnage seemed barely to have budged and the wolf was rapidly losing his patience. Karnage rolled down the window and yelled out

 

“TARADO!”

 

Jay cringed, knowing what the word meant; but said nothing of it. Trying to direct his grandfather away from the frustrating matter of the traffic outside, Jay leaned against the window and asked:

 

“Do you think we’ll be there in time for lunch? Sorry. I’m starting to get hungry.”

 

The dog’s stomach growled then, further emphasizing his point.

 

Karnage, meanwhile, struggled to calm himself somewhat- for his grandson’s sake.

 

“I am hoping so, si.”

 

Peering out the window, Jay glanced out at the distance. There seemed to be a pileup of several cars near the end of the road. Weak plumes of smoke were rising from the wreckage and the eleven-year-old could already hear the distant screech of an ambulance.

 

“Granddad? There was an accident a little farther out; I think we’re gonna be here a looong time….”

 

As he said the last two words, Jay himself sighed in exasperation. Karnage, however, thought briefly back to his wife’s own accident and flinched; collapsing back into his memories and almost momentarily losing control of the wheel.

 

“I…. I hope no one was keeled.”

 

Karnage murmured, sitting ramrod straight against his seat; trembling as he gripped the wheel.

 

“I hope so too.”

 

Jay agreed, growing concerned as he watched his grandfather; who appeared to be getting more and more stressed as he drove.

 

“Are you all right?”

 

A little less than two minutes passed. No answer; Karnage kept his eye on the road.

 

Trying his best to lighten the mood, Jay took a deep breath and began singing:

 

“….You don’t need to wonder, you’re doing fine; and my love, the pleasure’s mine! Let me go crazy on you! Craaaazy on you!”

 

Being tone deaf, Jay could not carry a tune to save his life; and it showed. He couldn’t stay on-key; and this was made worse by the fact that the dog was going through puberty- and the fact that his voice was changing was painfully apparent.

 

Karnage gritted his teeth, tightening his paws around the steering wheel until his knuckles began to hurt. He would never stop hating that damn word!

“What?”

 

Jay had stopped singing abruptly.

 

“….Never mention dat word.”

 

Jay blushed.

 

“Sorry. I really can’t sing….”

 

He squeaked, cringing at how his voice came out.

 

Karnage just gave him an understanding look. And he could indeed sympathize with his grandson's plight.

 

“I am not knowing what to do.”

 

And with that, the two continued to drag through the steady influx of traffic.

 

Time passed, and eventually; in Vegas, it was five minutes past noon. Alice and Jamie left the hotel and to a casino/resort on the strip; the Gilt Macaw, to try their luck at the slots. They stayed there for little over an hour and left with mixed results; having walked out with somewhat less money than when they’d gone in.

 

The two walked out of the decidedly pretentious casino and sat down on a bench beside a parking meter; waiting for a bus back to the hotel.

 

“Alice?”

 

Jamie began, glancing at his wife.

 

“Hmm?”

 

Alice had been slightly distracted until now.

 

“You sure you want to go back to the hotel?”

 

She just shrugged, lost in thought. This was the creature she loved and yet, she’d just stood by and allowed them to drift apart.

 

I loved him….. LOVE him.

She thought. She went back in her mind to the first time she ever saw him; twenty-one years ago now.

 

I wish things were the way they were back then…… I don’t know what happened all of a sudden; when the both of us grew up. He’s the greatest gift of my life and….. Oh damn, what the fuck have I done? And where have I been when I should have been there for him?

 

Time seemed to rewind for her. Alice’s mind didn’t go to the jewelry he’d got her, but to the first time she’d held her newborn son in her arms eleven years ago. The first second his little body was nestled against hers, she fell in love. She remembered writing in her diary: ‘Jamie, I love only one man more than I do you…. My pequeno tesoro, as Dad used to say to me.’

 

And with that, Alice knew what she wanted to do.

 

“Jamie?”

 

“Yeah?”

 

She smiled slyly.

 

“Let’s put off going back to the hotel for an hour or two….. I heard about a state park out of town called the Valley of Flame that’s supposed to have gorgeous views. I was thinking we could maybe eat a quick lunch and then go hiking. How does that sound?”

 

Jamie considered the offer. It sounded like a fun excursion; and hell, he’d have time to get close to his wife again on the way there so who was he to complain? All in all, it seemed Alice had a good plan.

 

“Sure,”

 

He agreed.

 

“Why the hell not?”

 

And with that; they got up and went in search of a quick meal.

 

The two ended up eating a cheap lunch at a diner before heading out of town to visit the valley. The whole trip there; Jamie was beginning to suspect there was something…. Off about his wife. She seemed unusually quiet, but after assuring her husband she was fine; Jamie made no attempt to push her. Hopefully, she would tell him whatever was wrong once they got there.

 

Eventually, they arrived in a broad, sweeping valley that seemed barren of civilized life. The pinkish clay soil on the ground was covered with tufts of desert scrub brush; and the sky above seemed teal and limitless, dotted with semitransparent clouds.

 

But most impressive of all were the canyons. The twisted, curving sandstone spires and rock formations seemed to stretch on forever; like nature’s skyscrapers. The formations were similar in color to the soil, but with a more orange hue; some were tall and spiky, others more like miniature mountains.

 

The rocks were marked by uncountable grooves and stripes; and bumping ridges. Some even had tiny caverns feeding into an abyss beneath. As the couple walked west; the uncanny feeling that they had traveled millions of years back in time only increased.

 

“I can’t believe we’re less than an hour out of the city,”

 

Alice murmured as they hiked through an upward trail.

 

“Yeah. It’s something, isn’t it?”

 

Feeling more than a little awkward, Jamie stepped beside his wife and put an arm around her and they walked off that way, the sun glaring warmly but not too harshly down on them.

 

They took a brief detour through a narrow, natural stone alley half-bathed in shadows. It was jarringly claustrophobic, but fortunately the pass opened into a scenic little meadow on an overhang.

 

Large, mattress-like rock formations jutted off the edge, and Jamie began to grin as he got an idea.

 

“Alice….. We’ve gotta talk.”

 

“Let me guess, about us?”

 

Jamie smirked.

 

“Bingo.”

 

They went over to the flattened rocks together and sat down; stories over the baking asphalt strip that led into Vegas below. Here, surrounded by nothing but nature; it seemed they had their own world to themselves.

 

It was only about eighty-two degrees; which was blissfully low for a Navoda July, and there was a pleasant, cooling breeze. It was noiseless, peaceful here, and Jamie knew there was no better time to approach his wife than now.

 

“Alice, really…. What do you want from me?”

 

He was being sincere; almost pleading.

The female wolfdog glanced at her husband, before taking a deep breath and saying:

 

“I know I’m being too optimistic; even too much of an idealist, maybe, but…… I just wish our relationship could be what it used to be. Or close to be. Jamie, just look at the past thirteen years we’ve been together and think of how happy we used to be; go back and remember it. Come on, please?”

 

Jamie closed his eyes for a moment, and remembered. He thought back to their wedding day (well, the happy parts of it for that matter.); and everything after the rather hellish spring of 1963, and he saw them happy. The fall of 1964, where they’d found out Alice was pregnant. 1965; when Jay was born. And then, raising their little boy and delighting in even the smallest of moments with him. And then, only in the past handful of years had it all gone to shit.

 

“Alice….”

 

Jamie whispered, trembling.

 

“I know why you’re upset, okay? I know and I understand. But I swear that I, James Martin Duncan am going to do my best to make us husband and wife again.”

 

And with that, in the silent valley, the sun seeming to cast a golden glow around them; Alice and Jamie kissed.

 

Mitch, Lakshmi, Don Martino, and their current band of followers were encamped in the ninth grade biology classroom. It was an odd, almost rectangular room with sickly lime-green wallpaper and slick, pale blue tile floor. All the windows were shattered; and many of the desks had since been vandalized, the chairs splintering and decaying; their metal frames beginning to rust with time. A calendar tacked on the wall was dated 1964; and in some ways the room truly did seemed to have been frozen in time twelve years before.

 

Mitch occupied a seat at the teacher’s desk; it was antique and quite possibly made of oak. There was something regal about it, omnipotent, and the cat smugly enjoyed every moment she sat there, surveying her foolish pawns. Perhaps the teacher who’d bought this desk had had better taste than Mitch knew.

 

Leaning back in her chair, Mitch cleared her throat and spoke to the assembled creatures:

 

“All right, so it looks like we’re all here. Today is June 28th, and that means we only have four days left until…. Showtime, Day Zero, whatever the hell you wanna call it. And on that day Martino will approach Leo under the guise of wanting to ‘ask him something’ And then, as they’re talking; Lakshmi will come up from behind them with a gun and shoot our Landino in the spine. The end.”

 

Mitch was smirking as she finished speaking. The plan was perfect in every way; she had seen to that. Yes, a bullet to the spinal cord would be an instant or near-instant kill; but she would reveal her true purposes to Lakshmi before he could even pull the trigger.

 

And Lakshmi? She would die too. Of course she would! All seven creatures in this room except her would by systematically executed on Friday. And then, Mitch would receive the promotion she KNEW she deserved.

 

From there, they (and the remainder of Leo’s following) would go to the Olympics and assassinate the Freedonian president; showing the world what they were capable of doing. Oh, she couldn’t wait for that day to come either. But for now; there was still business to attend to with these foolish, too-trusting, acid-dropping dupes. And so she glanced over at Lakshmi, asking:

 

“How’s target practice coming?”

 

“Great!”

 

Lakshmi chirped; her eyes glossy. There were a few snickers throughout the room- the female was clearly stoned, these days it seemed she was often stoned more often than not.

 

Mitch, however, nodded as though the marten were perfectly coherent. She then said:

 

“Then keep at it. And next time, try cutting back on the microdots. Or whatever the hell else you’ve been into lately.”

 

“’Kay….”

Lakshmi muttered, giving a strange little giggle before slumping forward on her desk with her face cupped between her paws. Mitch flipped her the bird and casually lit a cigarette. So what if Lakshmi was in the fog more often than not? The cat had seen a clearheaded Lakshmi in action a few times in the past; and she seemed to be a decent enough shot.

 

And in the end, nobody was going to be doing any actual shooting (not that they knew yet) so it didn’t matter. In the long run; things were going to be just fine.

 

Smiling, Mitch addressed her supposed faction and said:

 

“Remember, gang; Friday is when we make our move. Friday! So be ready, or be square. But that’s all. You can all beat it now; we’ve been here over an hour and I say we could use a break.”

 

And with that, everyone fled. Martino went to Lakshmi’s desk and lovingly dragged her out of the classroom, leaving Mitch to herself. Everyone was so eager to leave that they never noticed two bright blue eyes peering down at them from a large gap in the ceiling panels.

 

As the afternoon faded away in the June heat wave; Karnage and Jay found themselves eating lunch on the road before finally arriving in Karnageport at 2:04. Karnage explained to his grandson that they would be staying on a small island just west of town, and Jay accepted this; becoming increasingly curious about the town’s peculiar but unique atmosphere.

 

Karnage rented a rowboat; and the two canines hauled it out of town with their luggage in tow. Thunder Island had changed greatly since 1945. After Grace and Karnage’s hurried flight there during the Second World War; Lexbay Hall had remained in decaying elegance for thirteen more years until Alice went to college.

 

Both Grace and her husband had been suffering from intense Empty Nest Syndrome at the time, and needing something to occupy themselves; took up restoring Lexbay Hall as a side project. The summer cottage’s original dusty but gaudy pink had been repainted a gentle sea green with pale blue trim; and all the rooms within had been dramatically redesigned as well. In addition, a dock had also been built on the southernmost end of the beach. All in all; Thunder Island had a new lease on life.

 

But of course, Jay had never seen the island in its older, unrestored state; so he couldn’t yet share his grandfather’s feelings of pride and connection with the place and the summer home housed on it. But regardless, the young dog still found himself looking forward as they entered.

 

Karnage was humming as they dragged their suitcases into Lexbay; and Jay made himself comfortable on the plush antique sofa, looking around. The parlor’s original 19th century floral wallpaper had been stripped away years ago and replaced with calmer, beige walls featuring pine boughs with pinecones.

The original antique furniture though was all intact and all in all; Jay was fascinated by how the room seemed to be a mix of past and present.

 

Karnage, however, had crept over to a wooden coffee table several feet away and was staring at a family photo from roughly 1952. How on earth had that gotten there??

In the photograph; Grace and Karnage were smiling enthusiastically (albeit a little cheesily) for the camera, whereas Alice and Leo were more somber and grim; with the trademark moodiness of creatures just entering their teen years.

 

Instinctively, Karnage felt his heart race. A red mist washed over his vision. Fumbling about for a weapon; he opened the nearest drawer and found a dust-coated penknife; using it to viciously slice his older son out of the picture before dropping the knife to the floor. Hearing the sudden ripping; Jay instinctively turned, and was rather puzzled (and shocked) to see his grandfather standing over the side table, shuddering violently, a penknife discarded on the floor beside him.

 

“…What were you doing??”

 

The young dog asked, rightfully baffled.

 

“Mamon,” Karnage muttered under his breath. “I….Was getting reed of sometheeng that didn’t belong een our familia.”

 

Still, that was not quite enough to satisfy Jay’s unease.

 

“What?”

 

“Eet’s not important, really.”

 

Normally; Jay would have let this slide, but a certain gut feeling told him that all this business- whatever it was- was indeed important.

 

“Are you sure? I’m kinda scared about all this and….”

 

Jay found himself grinning slyly as he added; only half-seriously:

 

“Do you want me to sing again?”

 

Karnage only waved him off, and then sighed.

 

“No, no, do not be bothering….”

 

He hesitated, feeling guilty already. He’d clearly frightened the boy; and his grandson had DID have a right to know. He was nearly twelve, after all. Feeling he was old enough to be told this; the wolf went on

 

“…..Dere used to be another member of our familia….. I thought he was mi hijo; but…. He tried to keel Grace.”

 

Jay listened numbly, feeling the fur on the back of his neck starting to stand up. I thought he was mi hijo. Hijo. My son. So his grandfather had had a living son. And that empty bedroom….. Yes; it probably HAD belonged to that very creature! As he contemplated this thought; Jay felt more and more disturbed, regretting he’d asked to begin with. Figuring that now was the best opportunity to come clean and speak out, Jay cleared his throat and revealed:

 

“I….I think I found his room.”

 

Karnage rubbed his temple and slumped down in a comfortable-looking brown velvet armchair.

 

“Eet’s past time to clean dat kaka deltaro out of dere…. I’ll do eet later.”

 

And on that note, Jay knew there was only one thing left on his mind; and this quite possibly scared him most of all to think about:

 

“What made him so messed up?”

 

“I weesh I knew……. I weesh I knew.”

 

And with that, an awkward silence having fallen; Jay quickly excused himself and went off to look for a bedroom to claim, already struggling with his turbulent; conflicting emotions.


	5. Chapter Five

That evening after dinner; Jay and Karnage went to their respective bedrooms to uneventful slumbers. Breakfast the next morning, June 29th, passed with little event; but for lunch Karnage decided they were going to eat at his favorite bar (and eatery in general); the Drunk Vixen. Jay had no qualms with this; and accompanied his grandfather into town that afternoon.

Outside; a sign on the window read: UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT! Karnage, though, paid this little mind. He was well aware that the bar had gone out of business sixteen years ago; but had planned on visiting the second he heard it had reopened that spring.

As they entered through the western-style, swinging saloon doors; however, it was almost instantly clear that the Drunk Vixen of 1976 was NOT the Drunk Vixen of 1955. The heavy, circa late-19th century floral carpets that had once graced the floors were gone; revealing bare walnut. Bottles containing all manner of drinks Karnage had never seen before were lined up in a glass cabinet behind the bar itself; and the patrons in general seemed to have gotten significantly younger in demographic since the bar’s closing in 1960.

 

Many of them were dressed casually; or else outright bizarrely: Many of the females were dressed in skimpy dresses and neon-colored go-go boots; the males in jeans (Despite the suffocating heat outside) and t-shirts plastered with offbeat-sounding band names Karnage had never heard of- but Jay probably had.

 

And finally, most disconcerting of all was the band that was playing on the stage. Now, it wasn’t the fact that there were live performers at the Drunk Vixen. That had always been the norm. The bar had been host to various dance acts and burlesque shows at the turn of the century; then jazz groups in the twenties; all the way up to those happy-go-lucky doo-wop bands the 1950s had been so famous for.

 

But Karnage was not familiar with this genre whatsoever. Indeed; he found himself staring, slack-jawed at the group; which consisted of two foxes, a squirrel, and a tiger. All four of them were males; probably in their early thirties at the oldest, and dressed in jeans and fringed vest that weren’t unlike his grandson’s wardrobe of choice.

 

The wolf found himself entranced, bizarrely; by this band. In the end, he was listening as the lead singer (the squirrel) leapt forward on the stage, half-singing half-chanting:

 

“Well I’m sick and tired hearing ‘bout the world and its hangups. Gonna get myself together, take a ride downtown. Gotta see my rock n’ roll doctor. Gotta see my rock n’ roll doctor, rock n’ roll doctor….”

 

Upon noticing his grandfather’s puzzled, overwhelmed and yet intrigued expression; Jay just laughed.

 

“That’s Black Sunday. They’re one of my favorite metal bands! Can I PLEASE get a little closer to the stage just so I can hear better? I’ll be back when the song is over, I swear.”

 

The eagerness and anticipation was tangible in Jay’s voice; and Karnage could see this. The boy’s situation was easy to relate to- though he was not familiar with this new rock subgenre- Metal; as Jay had called it, Karnage distinctly remembered being obsessed with jazz during his own teenage years in the 1920s, and allowed Jay to go.

 

“Si, si, go and leesten to dese Black Saturday people eef that ees making you happy.”

 

Jay was so overjoyed and thrilled to finally see one of his favorite bands live; he almost didn’t notice the fact that his grandfather had gotten Black Sunday’s name incorrect. On that note, the young dog zipped off to find a better view; leaving his Karnage to his own devices.

 

As soon as Jay left his grandfather and wandered further into the restaurant; he was mildly dismayed to see the seat he’d been wanting to claim had already been taken, as had the chair next to it at that same table. The table was now occupied by two female creatures about his age; one of them was a female rat. She looked to be about twelve; and was dressed casually in jeans, platform shoes, and a light orange tanktop with brown and yellow stripes. Her companion was a solid brown dog with unusual, yellow eyes who appeared to be a basenji mix.

 

She was grinning and wore a short-sleeved denim shirt with a pattern of rhombuses on the sleeves, a gray corduroy vest, and a light blue silk skirt that seemed to have been tie-dyed. She and her friend stopped whispering to each other, however, as Jay approached.

 

“Hi,”

 

He mumbled, famously awkward when meeting new creatures apart from family.

 

The two young females, however, welcomed him warmly. The dog (who seemed to be about thirteen now that Jay got a closer look at her face); grinned at him and exclaimed:

 

“The name’s Rose McQueen. What’s shakin’?”

 

In spite of himself, Jay smiled shyly.

 

“Jay. Jay Duncan.”

 

Rose glanced unblinkingly at Jay for a moment, studying him.

 

“….Do you like Black Sunday?”

 

“No crap!”

 

Jay breathed, thrilled to be in the presence of other fans.

 

Rose beamed, revealing crooked teeth.

 

“Fab! Oh, and this is my best friend; Shelley Stockwell.”

 

The rat, Shelley, nodded in confirmation.

 

“Hi.”

 

She waved limply and let her paw and wrist flop back onto her lap, turning back to continue listening.

 

“Shelley’s really shy like that; it’s nothing personal.”

 

Rose whispered around her paw.

 

“I heard that, Rose! Sit on it.”

 

“No thanks!”

 

Rose giggled, turning back to Jay.

 

“I’ve loved Black Sunday since….”

 

She made a show of counting the numbers on her fingers.

 

“Oh gosh, I think since they formed. When I heard they were having a concert here in Karnageport I asked my sister Karen- she’s twenty- to take me.”

 

“Why didn’t your parents come?”

 

Rose sighed and looked vaguely depressed, indicating that she didn’t want to talk about it.

 

“It’s not important, really.”

 

Mildly taken aback, Jay knew he’d clearly touched upon a taboo subject for Rose but, not wanting to ruin their acquaintanceship any further; he opted not to chance on asking why.

 

“Okay. It’s casual.”

 

Rose smiled, clearly recognizing his slang; but before Jay could say anything more, he paused a moment and realized he could faintly hear his grandfather calling him over the strains of music. Lunch was probably there already.

 

“Sorry, I’ve gotta run. My grandfather’s calling me.”

 

Shelley looked mildly disappointed.

 

“See you later. Peace.”

 

Rose, however, had more enthusiasm:

 

“It’s no big deal. Catch you on the flip side!”

 

“Likewise.”

 

And with that, Jay hurried off to join Karnage for lunch.

 

At Pemberly Hill, Leo Karnage was restless. But then; the wolfdog found he couldn’t remember a time in the past twenty-one years when he’d been able to have even the slightest moment of contentment- No, there had always been SOMETHING, something no matter what would worm his way into his mind or his life; perhaps both, and stay steadfastly there until Leo had resolved the issue.

 

Sitting idly in his office and cleaning out the barrel of his gun; Leo’s mind ambled back to the spring of thirteen years ago. He had been so determined then to eliminate his sister Alice and that rotten husband of hers; and it wasn’t as though they didn’t deserve it. Indeed, even now, a brutal little smirk slowly spread across Leo’s face as he thought of how foolishly, how hardheadedly his sister clung to her lies about her – their – true heritage. The last Leo had heard of his sister and her husband; they’d apparently had a child who would be about ten or eleven years old now. But that was merely from a word-of-mouth speculation one of his many acolytes had picked up from who knows where; and who knew if it contained even a grain of truth?

 

Well, Landino diVenazetti was determined to find out- After all; it was even in the family motto: Do or die! True, he had many tasks and proposals on his plate already; but it was common knowledge the Olympics wouldn’t start until late July, and the staged assassination wouldn’t be until Friday.

 

There was absolutely nothing to do in the three days remaining, but suddenly Leo was getting more and more ideas as to how he wanted to spend those three remaining days. Yes, three days wasn’t a massive amount of time but the wolfdog felt he needed a little something to…. Stimulate himself with until Friday. Yes, that was exactly the word; stimulate, push himself further.

 

He still remembered Alice and Jamie’s exact address from when he’d planted a spy next door thirteen years ago; and placing and carrying out a hit would only be TOO easy, after all…..

 

Upon considering who would deliver the hit, Leo made some obvious mental eliminations on the spot: Not Mitch or Martino. They were far too high-ranked to even be thinking about this sort of work; and there was no telling if poor Lakshmi Varma would even be coherent enough to so much as hold her gun correctly. And certainly not that new girl, Bridget. She had only been there for one day; and if she so much as considered the fact that Leo actually might select her for a job yet- Even an unimportant enough one- she was sadly mistaken!

 

In fact, the wolfdog thought he knew just the creature who could execute the hit slowly, dirtily and painfully; exactly how he wanted it: His mercenary, Graitham Metzira. Several minutes later; the creature appeared, as requested, in his office: Graithe was a lithe yet muscular, older squirrel; with coal-black fur and golden eyes who seemed to have a permanent glare. She wore a long, puff-sleeved black blouse, and a loose khaki skirt.

 

She was clutching at the handle of some sort of ambiguous instrument case that contained a blowback pistol called a MAC-10, and an antique handgun was hidden within her skirt pocket. The squirrel meant business; Leo could see that the second she’d entered, and he intended to deal with her as fairly as possible…. Of course, going by his own definition of fair!

 

“Ye need a job?”

 

Her voice (Scozian accent and all) was like ice. Leo barely recoiled at the sound of it; his own tone hardly differed. The wolfdog leaned across the table, staring directly at her unblinkingly and saying, with a smirk:

 

“As a matter of fact…… Yes.”

 

He smiled, and Graitham’s feral grin was almost an exact match.

 

“Listen; because I’m only going to tell you once: I need you to carry out a very important job for me.”

 

“Aye, ah ken. Who d’ye need taken oot?”

 

Leo sighed, his patience never long in lasting.

 

“I’m not obliged to give out too many details but if you fuck up this job you are damn well going to pay….! I need you to go after my nephew, his parents, my mother and….”

 

He scowled brutishly, but all too soon it was replaced by a heartlessly delighted smile.

 

“Ah wilnae fail. Ef ah fail, ah’ll eat mah oon gun- Ah’ve never failed before….”

 

Leo recognized the sly persuasiveness in the squirrel’s voice and now knew for certain that she was trustworthy. His smile only broadened.

 

“Excellent! Then my expectations for you are even higher.”

 

Leo gave the mercenary his family members’ addresses in Morstoke and Southshire; and then dismissed her. Graitham nodded, wordlessly saluted her current superior and left; dragging out her black velvet case with her. Once she was gone, Leo gave a happy little cry and stared at the flickering bare bulb strung above him.

 

In the long, unbroken silence of the office, the wolfdog opened his bottom desk drawer and produced a glass mason jar full of squirming, wriggling live millipedes. No, Leo had never been fond of insects; but until Friday these would have to do. The wolfdog now considered himself to have too much of an elevated status to even slightly dirty himself with his traitorous family’s blood.

 

But, should he ever encounter them under any circumstances….. Leo knew that, filthy inferiority aside; he would enjoy torturing and mutilating all five of them. Slowly.

 

And with that, Leo Karnage- or rather, Landino diVenazetti; plucked a millipede from the jar and began the slow, wonderful process of ripping off its legs. For now, this would be the only violence Leo would be content with, But truly only for now……

 

Twenty-three minutes later, the concert ended, and Karnage and Jay finished their lunch. Jay’s grandfather paid; and they promptly left the restaurant. As the two departed through the swing doors, however, he noticed that other dog his age; Rose McQueen, standing across the street in the shadow of a rusting old pickup truck. She was chatting away with Shelley and an older dog who was probably Rose’s older sister Karen. Curious and instinctively wanting to know what the two friends were giggling over; Jay (blushingly) told Karnage:

 

“I’ll be right back!”

 

And crossed the dusty, antiquated street to the females. Upon seeing that Jay, a boy, was fast approaching them Rose and Shelley quickly went silent; while Karen made a show of trying to suppress a laugh. They both plastered on innocent smiles, however, and Rose quickly stepped over to have a brief talk with her sister.

 

“Karen, this is my new friend Jay; I met him at the Drunk Vixen….. Can I please talk to him really quick?”

 

Karen glanced at her watch, and then to Rose and looked vaguely approving.

 

“Yes, but make it quick!”

 

Just as Rose turned and had began to walk back over to Jay; another car pulled up somewhat further down the street. The horn blew.

 

“Crap, that’s my parents! Later days!!”

 

“Later days!”

 

Shelley and Rose called back simultaneously as the young rat dashed off to meet up with her parents. Once she was out of sight, Rose took Jay by the wrist and led him over to a cracked set of stone stairs leading up to some creature’s door. She kneeled down in front of him and whispered:

 

“Jay. I know we just met and everything; but you seem really cool. And Shelley and I are sneaking out to the quarry in an hour. It’s going to be bitchen’!”

 

Jay was intrigued, but his head felt like it was going to implode with questions. Why would Shelley and Rose be sneaking out to someplace like the Karnageport quarry in the middle of the afternoon? Clearly, it was something that as preteens, they should not be doing- which only served to make Jay all the more interested. But regardless; whatever it was Rose and her friend were doing, it would have to be something they could all get away with quickly and easily and never suffer the consequences of adults’ lecturing.

 

So the dog quickly asked:

 

“What is it?”

 

“…..Shelley has beer, and we’re going to try it!”

 

Jay’s eyes widened. As much as he hated to act this way; it was true: He’d rarely seen his own parents consume any alcohol except for the *infrequent* light beer and wines on special occasions. But apart from that; he knew embarrassingly little of liquor and the ill-effects that went hand in hand with it. What if they had more than a few tiny sips and got drunk? What if they got so drunk they’d simply start vomiting?

 

“….I really don’t know!”

 

Jay whispered.

 

“I barely know either of you, and do I have to do this?”

 

“No! We’d never force you to do anything like that, Jay. But do you want to go??”

 

Jay inhaled deeply and took a moment to consider. He knew that in a way, this was going to be a taboo sort of coming-of-age experience if he agreed; but the dog still felt unsure if Rose’s words were valid.

 

“Then answer me: Are we gonna dip acid and go running off into the woods to live like wild children of nature?”

 

Rose looked as though she was trying to hold back explosive laughter.

 

“No! Are you crazy?? I don’t know what corny public health videos they showed you at your school but I swear this is all we’re doing: One mouthful for each of us, and then we go home and act like nothing happened. That’s all.”

 

“Rose! Rose, come on; we don’t all day to stand around like this!”

 

Rose sighed as Karen began yelling for her and looked to Jay.

 

“You have an hour to make up your mind; either you’re there or you’re not.”

 

And with that, Rose walked off to reunite with her older sister, leaving Jay to accompany his grandfather back to Thunder Island.

 

An hour later; Jay arrived at the quarry as requested. It was to the east of town, and barely past the town line. Jay suddenly felt extremely small and very intimidated as he entered: It was a limestone quarry; and it had been more or less abandoned since the 1950s.

 

The whole quarry itself was a square-shaped rock formation that had been arbitrarily cut into in places, so that it was like a sloppy, rough-cut network of steps and stairs. The face of the quarry itself was weathered and battered, having long since been damaged by the unfeeling climates and harsh winter winds, messy lines of brown and tan streaking down the otherwise near-white stone.

 

Shelley and Rose were waiting for him at the bottom ‘steps’ if you will; with a bottle of light beer beside them. Both female creatures grinned as he approached, and Rose began waving enthusiastically.

 

“Oooh, Jay! You came!!”

 

She ran to the other dog and caught him in a hug that felt like more of a football tackle, leaving Jay winded.

 

“Rose!”

 

Shelley chuckled.

 

“Go easier on Jay! You’re murdering him!”

 

“Not anymore I’m not!”

 

Rose squealed and let Jay go. He released the breath he’d been holding in until now and followed her to their seat.

 

“….Who wants to go first?”

 

Shelley was surprisingly self-assured as she held up the bottle and shook it; swishing the contents around for good measure.

 

“I think I’ll wait.”

 

Rose murmured, fidgeting around on the uncomfortable, rough stone.

 

“Jay?”

 

“Me too.”

 

That having been decided, they began. Jay waited as the excitingly taboo, brown-glass bottle was passed around the group. Shelley took a sip and pantomimed gagging before plastering on a silly grin and handing the bottle to Rose. Rose downed the alcohol in moments, smirked triumphantly and passed it on to Jay. He stared at the bottle, squinting hard until his vision blurred and fuzzed around the edges, and he began to sweat.

 

He could do this. No, that was wrong. He WOULD do this! Pinching his nose with one paw, Jay leaned back and swished a bit of the beer around in his mouth. Almost instantly his tongue felt as though it were numbed and burning simultaneously.

 

Tears burned his eyes. He couldn't breathe. He couldn't. . . Jay choked and both paws went to his throat.

 

“Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap….. Jay, what’s wrong??”

 

Shelley’s tone had now become desperate, and she was going into a state of utter panic. Jay tried to tell her exactly how he felt; but it was though his tongue wouldn’t work, and when he tried to so much as breathe it came out as quick, forced little snorts through his nose.

“Ican’tbreathe!”

 

Jay somehow got out, gagging as he spoke. And with that, he leaned over the ledge of stone and began to retch.

 

“I think he’s allergic to something in the Corona!!”

 

Shelley cried, half to herself; eyes racing down the list of ingredients on the back of the bottle.

 

“I’d never have seen!”

 

Rose quipped, rather mockingly at that as she balanced swapping remarks with her friend and taking care of a still-nauseous Jay as best she was able. Turning back to the other dog, Rose put a paw gently on his shoulder and asked:

 

“Hey, can you walk; or are you too dizzy? We can go back to town and get you to the hospital, or a walk-in place if they’ve got one….”

 

“No….”

 

Jay moaned, holding onto his temple. He felt terrible: His vision was blurred and melding together like a bad abstract painting by a first-grader, and he had an uncanny feeling that if he took even a few steps forward he’d only fall on his face in the dirt.

 

Rose suddenly became unable to stop blabbering on about how sorry she was and how this was such a dumb, dangerous idea; but Jay had no interest in her apologies. This whole disaster wasn’t Rose’s fault in any way! There was no way she could have been aware Jay was allergic to…. Whatever had been in the Corona that he was allergic to.

 

“Rose, you couldn’t have—”

 

Jay had no time to finish his sentence, however. Because two creatures were rapidly approaching the quarry from the woods. And they were none other than Karnage and Rose’s sister, Karen.

 

At the sight of Karen and Karnage; Rose, Shelley and Jay simultaneously froze; as though they’d been petrified. The closer the adults got, the more pathetic the preteens looked: Rose had forced on an uncertain, nervous smile, Shelley was staring down morosely at her footpaws; and Jay sat between them, leaning forward towards the ground with a vomit-covered snout.

 

Upon seeing the three; Karnage was able to put together most of the pieces easily enough: Jay, Shelley and Rose had snuck out alone in broad daylight. And now the evidence was glaringly obvious so as to speak for itself: because of some adolescent dare or another; they’d each had at least a little bit of Corona. And Karnage’s grandson clearly had not responded well.

 

The wolf knew with a grim certainty as he got closer and closer to Jay that his grandson had either drank too much or was very much allergic to something in that beer.

 

The interrogations could wait and would come later. For now; Karnage needed to get his grandson to a doctor.

 

“Jay!”

 

Racing ahead of Karen, Karnage went to the three guilty children and helped Jay off the stone ledge.

 

“My boy, my boy,”

 

He sighed, rather exasperatedly.

 

“You will be appropriatetedly be given a most menacing, terrifying lecture…. After we get you to de hospital. You are looking like death, heated over.”

 

Jay was so nauseous and so exhausted he didn’t even bother to consider correcting his grandfather’s malapropism. Legs and footpaws dragging behind him, the dog allowed himself to be led off. The sound of Karen very angrily berating her sister and sister’s best friend soon fading into furious whispers as they journeyed back to town.

 

~

 

Jay and Karnage waited for a little over ten minutes in the emergency room; valiantly enduring whiny eight-year-olds with broken limbs, headachy drunks, and howling infants with ear infections. By the time a doctor finally saw Karnage’s grandson; he was thoroughly examined, treated, and pronounced healthy save for a yeast allergy.

 

In the end, the two creatures left the hospital a little more than an hour after they’d entered; a still-dizzy Jay trailing alongside his grandfather like a gangling shadow. By the time they returned to Thunder Island; Jay changed into his pajamas and announced he was taking a nap. Karnage was for now, content let his grandson sleep for the remainder of the afternoon.

 

~

 

At 5:31 (typically around the time Jay would eat dinner at home), Jay was abruptly woken by a firm, insistent knocking on his bedroom door.

 

“Come in…..”

 

He mumbled, sitting up and rubbing at his bleary eyes.

 

“Hola, Jay.”

 

Karnage greeted his grandson as nonthreateningly as possible, sinking into an old overstuffed chair near the bed. Jay, though, said nothing at all. He folded his arms and stared up at the wall clock with typical, age-appropriate sullenness. He clearly expected to be punished and put in his place, and was not in the slightest bit happy about it.

 

And in that respect, sadly, Karnage was going to deliver.

 

Seeing as his grandson was making no effort to start the conversation himself, the wolf figured he might as well begin now. Better than dancing around the subject, anyway.

“Jason…. Are you de word?”

 

The name snapped Jay out of his sulking instantly. He loathed his birth name; and no one had even called him by it since infancy.

 

“No.”

 

In response, the dog folded his arms and shot Karnage a dirty look.

 

“It wasn’t like we were going to drink the whole bottle, granddad! I swear we only had one sip each. And…. If I knew I was allergic to yeast there’s no way I would have done that. No way.”

 

“Jay, that ees besides de point! Eleven-year-olds do not go about dreenking weeth their mischief-making friends.”

 

Even though he knew this was a pointless battle and one he was losing, Jay felt he had to speak out.

 

“I know this isn’t the same but you let mom smoke when she was in high school.”

 

Karnage flinched; recalling this.

 

“I was estupido, I should have seen eet.”

 

Jay’s expression was thoughtful, but neutral as he spoke:

 

“If you want… We could have a truce.”

 

Karnage only looked to him, saying nothing.

 

Jay was trying his best to be sincere as he added:

 

“I’m sorry, granddad. I know I did something dumb, and I ended up getting myself sick because of it. But I won’t do something like that again. Um….”

 

Jay bit his tongue out of slight frustration on what to say next. This was painfully awkward, despite the fact that he was making his best effort to declare a truce between them.

 

Karnage, too, was also contemplating this. Yes, what his grandson had done today was incredibly stupid; but in hindsight, the older wolf admitted that if he’d ever gotten an opportunity, he too would have done something similar during his childhood. Jay and his new friends had had no intention of getting themselves drunk; that much was certain. And although Jay had gotten so sick because of a yeast allergy, there was no way he could have known that at the time.

 

The eleven-year-old’s reasons were genuine; and he didn’t sound like he meant anything other than what he said, so Karnage accepted Jay’s words as the truth.

 

“Si!”

 

He said, and the two exchanged a reluctant hug. Jay found himself smiling. Perhaps this whole exchange was the first step of many to building a better, friendlier and less-awkward relationship between grandson and grandfather. A first step, but still very much a step nonetheless.


End file.
